Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.

Although the Baucau region was considered one of the safest areas of the country, members of our group were told many times by locals that they were afraid of being attacked by the Indonesian military or the militias they controlled on Aug. 30, the day of the vote, or in the post-ballot period. With the Indonesian police in charge of security and the U.N. civilian police unarmed, it was easy to see why they were frightened.

The United Nations, however, encouraged people to vote, promising that it would remain in East Timor after the ballot, no matter what happened. The large numbers of international observers and journalists throughout the territory also acted as an implicit assurance to the East Timorese that this time the world would not desert them and leave them to their fate.