Introduction

UN peace operations, which originated in UNTSO in 1948, have changed and expanded their scope and mandates. In An Agenda for Peace in 1992, the then UN Secretary-General, Boutros-Ghali, mentioned four types of UN operations: preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peace-keeping and post-conflict peace-building. Among them, postconflict peace-building is a mission in which a UN mission helps a newly-born or newly-democratised state construct the nation-building process from various aspects: security, justice, governance, medicine, education, etc. A series of UN peace operations in East Timor were the typical cases for the process of peace-building. A strong economic and military commitment from the UN enabled East Timor to become independent from Indonesia in May 2002. In fact, it has been said that East Timor is a child of international society.

East Timor has been fully supported by the UN in its peace-building process. The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET: June–October 1999), which was established as a political mission, was mandated to organise and conduct a popular consultation to decide whether the East Timorese people chose a special autonomy within Indonesia or rejected the proposed autonomy, resulting in East Timor's separation from Indonesia. The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET: October 1999–May 2002), which was a multi-functional peacekeeping mission, exercised administrative authority over East Timor during the transition to independence.