Questions for the United Nations team managing East Timor

Abstract

The chapter poses a series of questions for the United Nations manager in charge of the transition process from the burned out shell of the Indonesian (and Portuguese) legacy to a sustainable and independent East Timorese government. A key question is: what criteria can be established that will determine when the reconstruction phase has been a success, and an independent East Timor can be treated as a small but viable country, on the road to economic well-being? If there is to be any benefit at all to starting over in the wake of the devastation visited on East Timor, it will be the opportunity to learn from this extraordinary set of circumstances how people and institutions can respond to challenge and times of crisis.