By Sergio Vieira de Mello

East Timor is on the home stretch to nationhood. Elections on Thursday will create a Constituent Assembly, the first democratically elected body in its history. This will be a defining moment in a long and often painful quest for self-determination, which will culminate in independence, probably early next year. The rampant violence that followed East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999 brought not just killing, abuse and massive displacement but also physical destruction on a monstrous scale. Virtually every building was burned, looted or razed to the ground; agriculture withered; all records were destroyed. The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Untaet, moved into this vacuum to work with the Timorese to rebuild, or rather build, their nation.

The United Nations and the Timorese have established a degree of peace and security not witnessed in decades. Together they have developed the institutions, and the people to manage them, for an administration that will be representative, transparent and efficient.

The process has not been flawless, in large part because it has never before been attempted. There is no instruction manual on how to build a country.

Executive power has for more than a year been in the hands of a Timorese-dominated cabinet whose decisions have been carefully screened, and sometimes rejected, by an embryonic legislature, the recently dissolved Timorese National Council. A new civil service is operating. So are financial, legal and judicial systems. This last is now trying key cases involving atrocities committed by militia groups in 1999 before Indonesian rule ended.

Medical clinics and schools have been reopened. Farming is back to the levels before 1999, and other sectors of the economy have revived. A revenue-sharing arrangement with Australia covering oil and gas in the Timor Sea has the potential to earn significant amounts of money for East Timor for decades to come.

Many foreign governments have established representative offices in Dili, and East Timor was invited to send a delegation to Hanoi for the recent annual meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations. Clearly, East Timor's most important relationship will be with Indonesia.

Militia activity is muted, and the level of general crime throughout is at an all-time low. UN peacekeepers and police are being increasingly assisted, before eventually being supplanted, by professional, well-trained Timorese forces. The East Timor Police Service has trained more than 900 officers, nearly a third of whom are women.

This unprecedented climate of security and personal well-being has been key in getting close to 185,000 refugees back to East Timor. The vast majority have been welcomed with open arms. Unfortunately, perhaps as many as 80,000 remain in refugee camps in West Timor. I am hopeful that after a peaceful election most of these refugees will be convinced that their futures lie in East Timor.

After the election there will be a further significant transfer of authority from Untaet to the East Timorese leadership, most significantly by forming an all-Timorese government based on the voting results. This will ease the transition from an administration with a significant international component to one that is almost entirely East Timorese.

It would be dangerously shortsighted to equate the imminent democratic political transition with the establishment of an effective public administration. Untaet will not be able to complete the tasks it was set by the UN Security Council in the next few months.

In view of mistakes made elsewhere in the world, a consensus is emerging that the United Nations and the international community must stay the course in East Timor or risk undermining the progress of the past two years. Plans are being drawn up for the United Nations to remain on the ground in East Timor after independence, to continue to assist the new government where necessary. The aim is to ensure that the country has sound administration and a self-sustaining economy.

* The writer is the special representative in East Timor of the United Nations secretary-general. He contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

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