Lindsay Murdoch in Liquica and agencies – East Timorese kept what the United Nations had called a date with democracy yesterday, voting in the first democratic election of their turbulent history.
After centuries of foreign occupation, the death of a quarter of the population and the near destruction of the territory, the election for a Constituent Assembly brings the East Timorese a big step closer to full independence.
Yesterday was also the second anniversary of the UN-run ballot that rejected Indonesian rule and unleashed a fury of killing and destruction by pro-Jakarta militias backed by Indonesian troops.
As dawn broke, thousands were on the move, walking up to 25 kilometres to vote. Mr Sama Leki, 77, a farmer, was so exhausted he could barely speak when he joined hundreds of people queuing shortly after daybreak in the ruins of an East Timorese school near the seaside town of Liquica. He had walked for a day across the mountains. "Now we have truly got our independence," he said.
A Sydney lawyer, Mr Pat Burgess, looked in awe at queues of hundreds of voters dressed in their Sunday best in Liquica, the town 50 kilometres west of Dili that saw some of the worst militia violence.
"It's an incredible sight," Mr Burgess said. "Here we have hundreds of smiling, confident people calmly lined up to take their first real step towards democracy. Inside I know their hearts are still feeling what they endured, particularly here in Liquica, where the violence and intimidation was very bad. That will take time to heal."
Like thousands of Timorese, Mr Burgess was attacked by pro-Jakarta militia thugs in 1999 as the UN made arrangements for the plebiscite. When the Timorese refused to be cowed by killings and intimidation and voted overwhelmingly for independence, Mr Burgess stayed in the territory and became the UN-appointed mayor of Liquica. "The Timorese have shown they are well on the way to building a new country," he said.
The independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao, who is set to become president of the world's newest state, cast his vote after queuing in his home town of Manatuto, 32 kilometres east of Dili. "I feel that this is the beginning of a new life," he said, clutching his one-year-old son, Alex, and accompanied by his Australian wife, Ms Kirsty Sword.
More than 1,000 Australian soldiers who are dug in at the East Timor border were yesterday on highest alert amid fears of raids into the territory by militia sheltering in camps in Indonesian West Timor. But the Indonesian military announced it had closed the border until next Tuesday.
The UN's chief electoral officer, Mr Carlos Valenzuela, said voter turnout was "heavy". "We are very happy, though not surprised, to report that all is well and that the election is taking place in a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Polling has gone off without difficulties." As the polls opened the UN administrator in East Timor, Mr Sergio Viera de Mello, told the East Timorese: "This will be your day to stand up and be counted and for your voices to be heard."
East Timor is expected to achieve full statehood in the first half of next year after the 88-member Constituent Assembly elected yesterday drafts a constitution and the president is elected in another vote early next year. Mr Gusmao last week accepted the presidential nomination of all the territory's key political parties, including Fretilin.
Provisional results will be announced on Wednesday, and the result confirmed on Monday week. Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor, is expected to triumph.
In the eastern town of Baucau, Mr Tim Fischer, the former deputy prime minister, leading a nine-member delegation of Australian monitors, said last night that voting had been peaceful. "It has been a splendid day ... a giant step towards independence with confidence leading to democracy."
Two years ago to the day Indonesian Army-trained thugs of the Besi Merah Puti (Red and White Iron) militia roamed Liquica threatening to kill those who voted for independence. Every household was forced to fly Indonesia's flag.
Thugs bashed Mr Francisco da Costa, 39, a school teacher, and stopped him voting because they suspected he favoured independence. Well before sunrise yesterday he was waiting for the polling booths to open as Portuguese peacekeepers stood watch holding automatic rifles. "We can vote freely; there is no intimidation," he said.