Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese Sunday looted the empty barracks of the Indonesian army in Dili several hours after the last occupying troops sailed out of the harbour under the cover of darkness.
People of all ages – arriving on bicycles, carts, motorbikes, cars, lorries and on foot – calmly sifted through the waterfront barracks and carried off any scrap or souvenir they could lay their hands on.
Chairs, tables, potted plants, neon light fixtures, cables and even a set of dumb-bells for weight training emerged from the building balanced on bicycles or perched awkwardly on shoulders, an AFP reporter said.
One man carried out a large plaque of an eagle – the Indonesian national symbol – with the wings symbolically smashed off while two others struggled to assemble a bedframe on the street.
"There is nothing like a good loot to start off the week," said a watching Australian soldier with the International Force for East Timor (Interfet), which allowed the dawn spree to carry on for several hours before gradually stopping the flow of looters entering the barracks.
The sound of hymns being sung in the open air at a large church across the road from the barracks filled the air as the town geared up to celebrate a Catholic religious feast marking the apparition of the Virgin Mary in the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917.
"I am very, very happy and give thanks to God for his mercy that he gives us deliverance from evil," said 31-year-old seminarian Armindo Brito of the troop withdrawal, as he decorated a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Brito was to have been ordained on September 24 but he was forced to flee to West Timor as pro-Jakarta militias went on a murderous rampage after the people of East Timor voted nearly four-to-one for independence from Indonesia in an August 30 referendum.
A man named Luis, who was also helping to spruce up the square in front of Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo's compound for an afternoon procession and service, said he had no idea the last Indonesian troops had left.
Asked if he was happy, his face lit up: "Of course, because now we are free from the Indonesian military," he said.
The last soldiers from a 1,000-strong Indonesian garrison in the territory slipped out from Dili harbor aboard the Teluk Banten 516 troop carrier in the early hours of Sunday morning, ending 24 years of often brutal military occupation.
An Australian soldier cast off the last line, and the ship headed into the darkness to the sound of catcalls from three East Timorese men on a motorcycle watching from behind a dockside fence.
On Saturday East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao took part in a low-key ceremony at Dili's Comoro airport with Indonesian top brass to formally recognise the departure.
Gusmao, smiling and relaxed and dressed in military combat fatigues, shook hands with Brigadier General J.D. Sitorus, the commander of the last Indonesian troops, and ambassador Taufik Sudarbo, head of the Indonesian task force.
Interfet commander Major General Peter Cosgrove also attended the simple ceremony along with the acting head of the UN Transitional Authority for East Timor (UNTAET), Ian Martin.
After lowering the Indonesian flag at the main barracks, around 130 troops left by air on two C-130 Hercules planes while the remainder departed on two troop ships.
More than 25,000 Indonesian troops have left East Timor since Interfet peacekeepers arrived on September 20 in response to international outrage over the scorched earth campaign by the militias with the open support of elements of the Indonesian military.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony on December 7, 1975 and annexed it seven months later in a move never recognised by the United Nations.