Hawk sweep shows barren land and razed ruins

BAUCAU - The Black Hawk helicopter swoops low over the coast east of Dili, giving us the first look in weeks outside the devastated capital. The winding road hugging the coast is empty.

Before the killing, looting and burning rampages buses, motor bikes and trucks made the road between Dili and East Timor's second biggest town, Baucau, the busiest in the territory.

Now there are no children playing on the white sand beaches along the coast that in places looks like Australia's Great Ocean Road.

Nobody is bent-double in the fields as we used to see. No children are standing by the road waving at the United Nations cars which no longer come. There are not even any of the Indonesian military and militia roadblocks where travellers only weeks ago were searched, harassed and sometimes beaten.

But the biggest shock comes as Australian Army pilot Ivana Gorlin banks the helicopter so we can see Manatuto, a seaside village that once thrived despite 24 years of Indonesian military repression.

Terrible things appear to have happened here. Half of the houses have been razed to the ground. The buildings still standing have doors and windows thrown open and debris strewn in gardens and along the street. And there are few if any people. We cannot see any movement from the helicopter.

As we fly further east the territory Portugal ruled for more than 400 years before Indonesia's brutal invasion 24 years ago is barren and still.

The soldier sitting next to me manning the machine-gun yells above the roar of the helicopter that the road will be difficult to secure when the multinational troops in Dili start to fan out across the territory.

Its edges often drop sharply down cliffs and wind through narrow mountain passes perfect for snipers.

I am among a small group of foreign journalists travelling with the head of the troops, Peter Cosgrove, on his first trip to Baucau where about 120 Australian troops are dug in at the wind-swept airport a few kilometres outside the town.

A banner across the airport building beckons welcome in the Bahasa Indonesia language.

But dozens of Indonesian soldiers lounging around the building look surly towards the Australian Army Major-General with a pistol on his hip who is followed by six bodyguards, their fingers always on their Steyr rifles. None of the Indonesians salute the man who will soon take over responsibility for security in East Timor after a humiliating withdrawal by about 20,000 Indonesian troops and soldiers.

General Cosgrove strides past dozens of UN vehicles that have been looted of engines, radios, tyres and anything else of value. Why didn't they just drive them away like the militia did in Dili?

As the General waits to call on the local Indonesian military commander he admits that four days after the first of his troops landed in East Timor, "it's plain there are serious problems still."

As we had flown out of Dili black smoke billowed from fires on the town's outskirts and three truckloads of Indonesian soldiers were driving around shooting into the air, prompting a big security scare.

General Cosgrove cannot say when all the Indonesian troops and soldiers will have gone. "An exact timetable for all of them to come out I would say is not yet on the table," he says.

After meeting the Indonesian commander, General Cosgrove says he is "more confident his heart is in the right place." He then makes a quick tour of his own soldiers dug in around the airport perimeter, coming across Tim Brand of Dimboola in Victoria. The commander and Private exchange pleasantries about the weather before General Cosgrove promises that soon many more Australian soldiers will be in Baucau to keep him company. "And I hope you will stay in good shape until then."

Before boarding the helicopter back to Dili General Cosgrove makes a short speech before other soldiers.

"We are just going to keep working through this issue of cooperation [with the Indonesian soldiers] until we can remove all the friction," he says.

- SYDNEY MORNING HERALD