In what may be the beginning of the end of 24 years of agony for its people, a United Nations force arrived in East Timor early this morning, and troops from the Indonesian army, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, are due to begin pulling out.
An advance contingent of 2,500 international troops, mainly Australian, flew in to Dili at dawn local time, (late last night Irish time), and another 800 are due before next Saturday.
Anticipating an early return to his homeland, the East Timor resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, came to Australia from Jakarta yesterday to begin setting up a government in exile.
Nine warships assembled off the coast of East Timor yesterday to provide cover and supplies for the arriving troops.
The International Force for East Timor (Interfet) will number 8,000 when the military deployment, one of the biggest in southeast Asia since the Vietnam War, is completed by the end of the month. Some 40 Irish Rangers will arrive in Darwin tomorrow to join them.
The Australian commander of the UN force, Maj Gen Peter Cosgrove, flew into the devastated East Timor capital yesterday afternoon and held 90 minutes of talks at military headquarters with Maj Gen Kiki Syahnakri, Martial Law Commander for the territory.
In the 13-member advance UN party was Mr Ian Martin, the British head of the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) which was forced to abandon its compound in Dili only last week in the face of intimidation by pro-Jakarta militiamen.
Gen Cosgrove said he came away from the talks "pleased with the co-operation" shown by Maj Gen Syahnakhri and promised that his force would respect the dignity of all the East Timor people. The Indonesian officer said that his troops would withdraw from the territory within days, though not before Saturday.
Some 250 members of the British Gurkha regiment will arrive at dawn to secure the airport and Interfet headquarters.
The UN will bring a complete register of the voting population of the territory to gauge the extent of the humanitarian disaster and begin the process of bringing displaced people and refugees back home.
Pro-Jakarta militias have threatened to attack the force but Gen Cosgrove warned of a "robust" reaction "if they try their hand against a modern military force". He acknowledged that there would be some "disquiet" at their arrival, however.
The Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, bade troops a tearful farewell at an army base in Queensland yesterday. "Although the goal of our forces will be restoration of peace and stability, the conditions they enter could well be violent and disruptive," Mr Howard warned in a televised address to the nation.
Hopes for a peaceful deployment were raised by the co-operative attitude of Maj Gen Syahnakri. After his meeting with Gen Cosgrove he appeared smiling for the cameras and said he expected the first members of the UN force to arrive at 6.30 a.m.
He said the Indonesian military (TNI) would help in a clear-up operation. "The TNI has been given the task to rehabilitate and the takeover will take place a few days later," he said.
An official of the National Council for Timorese Resistance, Mr Joao Carrascalao, said Mr Xanana Gusmao would commute between Darwin and Dili as he formed the first independent administration since 1975.
Mr Gusmao, captured and imprisoned by Indonesia in 1992, arrived on a commercial flight from the Australian city of Cairns. He did not speak to reporters. Mr Carrascalao said Mr Xanana left Jakarta because of death threats by "fundamentalists".