Comdt Sean Fox, who is in the UN compound in Dili, said the acceptance by the Indonesian President of an international peacekeeping force would make a significant difference. Interviewed by telephone, he went on to outline the logistical problems such a force would face.
"As all the buildings have been destroyed in Dili and the provincial areas, they will have to provide tents. The heavy rainy season begins at the end of October . . . so they will need to helicopter in supplies. They will need huge medical back-up, and all food will have to be flown in as the crops are destroyed," he said.
However, the main task for the force would be to set up a secure area. At the moment, he said, there were about 1,000 refugees sleeping under trees, along the sides of buildings, and in doorways. "There are children here and people who need medical aid," he said.
Representatives from the UN Security Council had come to view the situation and had visited the entire city and airport. "They were absolutely horrified by the scale of the destruction, there is no doubt about it. They may have seen burnt-out buildings before, but this was all done by anarchy and arson," Comdt Fox said.
The representatives assured the people that the UN would not abandon them and that they would be able to go back to their homes. Since then, Comdt Fox said, things had become a bit quieter and tensions had dissipated somewhat. The media had focused on Dili, but there were major problems in the regions and in West Timor.
He had spoken to an Indonesian army (TNI) major whom he knew well who had described conditions in a region about 1 1/2 hours from Dili in the coffee-growing area of West Timor.
"He told us that the whole region was deserted," Comdt Fox said. There was no water, electricity, sewage. Everything was gone.
In the UN compound, 60 staff remain. "Dili is absolutely ruined," he said. "There is a church standing, but we don't know what state it is in inside, and there are one or two state buildings remaining, but every other building has been destroyed. It was a nice city of 50,000 people, but now it is razed. The problem is, the provincial areas are the same," he said.