East Timor's daunting task: Rebuilding its cities and the lives of those in them

With help from international aid organizations, Suai residents are slowly rebuilding their lives

March 30, 2000
Web posted at: 1:36 p.m. HKT (0536 GMT)

By CNN Correspondent Maria Ressa

SUAI, East Timor (CNN) -- The United Nations administration in East Timor is working with East Timorese leaders to try to rebuild East Timor's cities from scratch.

But the damage is not just to buildings, nearly 90 percent of which have been destroyed; the violence has had a devastating effect on East Timor's social fabric.

Suai was one of the hardest hit cities in East Timor after militias went on a rampage following the historic vote for independence from Indonesian rule last year.

VIDEO CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa looks at East Timor's struggle to rebuild its cities. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

U.N. officials and observers quickly evacuated during the worst of the violence and returned nearly five weeks later to scenes of destruction.

"Suai was a beautiful place, lots of people, lots of things happening, a bustling market. When I came back in November, I didn't recognize the place," U.N. worker Doreen Kibuka told CNN.

One of the worst massacres in East Timor last year took place in Suai in a church where residents were eventually forced to seek shelter.

Nearly all the buildings in Suai are burned and gutted. Reconstruction must literally come from the ground up.

Six months after the vote for independence there is still no electricity and fresh water supply in Suai. Compounding the problem, there is little trade and no commerce.

Once a bustling market city, Suai is now made up of burned and gutted buildings

The people who have returned are surviving mostly with the help of international aid organizations. The main priorities are food and shelter.

"A lot of them still have crops and the island is, I think, relatively fertile because you have fish, you have fruit. I'm asking myself sometimes, how they survive, but they survive," says United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees worker Freidericke Adlung.

Adding to the challenge for aid groups is helping former militia members return to communities traumatized by violence.

Town meetings are common where U.N. officials and East Timorese leaders urge the people to refrain from street justice. It means rebuilding ties between friends, and enemies.

Aid workers say it could take a generation to heal the wounds of the past.

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U.N. peacekeepers take control of East Timor
February 23, 2000
East Timor receives international aid for reconstruction
February 22, 2000
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February 18, 2000

UN High Commissioner for Refugees
East Timor Action Network/U.S. Homepage
East Timor International Support Center

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