EAST TIMOR Swooping low over the azure Savu Sea, the pristine coastline and gnarly hills of Timor suddenly appear about two hours after takeoff from Bali. Before entering the spartan air terminal, visitors pass through a trailer where, upon arrival, $30 one-month visas are sold.
It is a short drive into Dili, the capital of this troubled paradise that still bears the scars of the 1999 post-referendum rampage by Indonesian paramilitary groups. These militias, armed and supplied by the Indonesian military, ran amok following the people's overwhelming rejection of continued rule by Indonesia. It was a cruelly pathetic denouement to a brutal occupation that began in 1975 when Indonesia invaded this former Portuguese colony.
Newly independent East Timor remains dotted with the eerie legacy of burned out and abandoned buildings. The world's newest nation faces daunting problems including a threadbare infrastructure, crushing poverty, malnutrition, high unemployment, limited health care, electricity and clean water -- and the search for justice.