Chief of the Udayana Military Command, overseeing Bali and West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, Maj. Gen. William T. da Costa made the remark after attending a function commemorating the police's 55th anniversary in Denpasar, Bali.

"The East Timorese registration shows that 53,000 families chose to stay in Indonesia and the rest opted to return to East Timor," da Costa said as quoted by Antara.

Most of the East Timorese who participated in the registration are those who had experienced the integration of East Timor into Indonesia in 1975. "The monitoring is aimed at solidifying the repatriation program, in the hope the East Timorese who are still residing in other provinces of Indonesia will soon return to their homeland," the officer said.

On the resettlement program, he said no houses in East Nusa Tenggara had been built as yet, except in Belu district where 145 units had been constructed. The resettlement of the East Timorese in Indonesia needs time and a large amount of funds as international loans had not yet been released for the program.

The NT government has called for the UN to enforce compulsory and ongoing screening of all personnel in East Timor after a Darwin woman contracted the virus from a UN employee on leave.

Australia's peak HIV/AIDS body argued such infections may become more prevalent if mandatory testing were enforced.

"Screening people for HIV based on mandatory testing is not an effective means of preventing HIV infection and furthermore, can lead to stigma and discrimination," AFAO acting executive director Chris Ward said. "The action that the NT government is demanding may unintentionally lead to effects such as reducing the likelihood that people would voluntarily seek HIV testing and therefore their willingness to access the appropriate information."

The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) dismissed the government's demands as discriminatory and illegal in most countries.

But NT Chief Minister Denis Burke said highest priority had to be preventing a Cambodia-scale AIDS epidemic in East Timor.

"And more than that, I'm concerned about the spread amongst the heterosexual population of the NT," Mr Burke said.

"I find it amazing that all of a sudden something is discrimination against an individual when no-one seems to give a great deal of concern about the potential for infection amongst the (East Timor) population.

The emergency grant aid is aimed at supporting the work of an international mission to monitor the election, training local election administrators and helping to develop a computerized registration system for voters, the ministry said.

The government also envisions backing efforts to educate East Timorese and providing equipment to the independent election committee, which will be in charge of carrying out the election, the ministry said.

Ministry officials said they expect the money to contribute not only to the smooth running of the upcoming poll on 30 August - exactly two years after East Timor voted to become independent from Indonesia in a referendum - but also to training the locals in holding future polls on their own.

Voters this time will elect an 88-member constituent assembly to decide on a constitution and the future form of government for East Timor ahead of its full independence slated in 2002.

Japan announced earlier this week it plans to send about eight officials to East Timor to help monitor the election.

Cady returns to France before leaving for Kosovo, where he will join the UN mission in that Yugoslav province.

His replacement, McNamara, has more than 25 years' experience as a ranking official of the UN High Commission for Refugees, having served as coordinator of the displaced persons program and as assistant to the UN mission in Kosovo.

UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello highlighted Friday McNamara's lengthy international experience, including work in various Asian countries.

"I have always admired McNamara's courage in many missions on the ground. He brings honor to public service and East Timor will benefit from his appointment", Vieira de Mello said.

The first program, an hour of news and information in the territory's lingua franca, Tetun, went on the air late Thursday afternoon. For the time the programs broadcast from Baucau use cassettes that are delivered daily from Dili, where the station maintains a 24-hour service in the territory's four official languages: Tetun, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and English.

Barbara Reis told media that a Malaysian delegation had met Friday with UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello and delivered a donation of dlrs 60,000 to be used to rebuild the Baucau mosque.

The head of Malaysia's mission in Dili, Mohamad Rameez bin Yahaya, told Vieira de Mello that the donation was a sign of his government's concern over the difficulties faced by the East Timorese population. "We continue to be interested in the construction of a multi-religious society", the Malyasian diplomat said.

He added that a group of ten East Timorese students would travel next week to Malaysia to begin a course in medicine, under terms of a technical cooperation program.

The 53-year-old Brazilian heads the United Nations mission in Dili, one of the most ambitious projects the world body has undertaken to date.

Backed by more than 8,000 troops, 1,300 police officers and legions of civilian personnel, Mr Vieira de Mello must oversee East Timor's shift from colonial outpost of neighbouring Indonesia to fully independent state. Few outside the UN appreciate the sweeping mandate awarded to the United Nations' Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet) under the terms of resolution 1272. Passed in October 1999 after most Timorese voted to break away from Jakarta and the territory was destroyed by pro-Indonesian militias, it allots the body "overall responsibility for the administration of East Timor [with] all legislative and executive authority, including the administration of justice".

While the UN has administered territories elsewhere, such as Kosovo, or organised state-wide elections to pave the way for conflict resolution, as in Cambodia, Mr Vieira de Mello's powers are unprecedented. His remit is not just the rebuilding of a devastated territory, but combining that task with the creation of a government for a new state.

"What I always ask . . . visitors to East Timor is to try to remember those days in September 1999, and to see the present against that background, which many tend to forget," Mr Vieira de Mello says. "They arrive and they start to compare us with a normal developing country. So please, remember what we found when we arrived and perhaps it might be easier to remember progress achieved if you do not forget what we started from."

If his words sound somewhat defensive, they are. While Untaet has grappled with keeping the militias at bay, establishing the rudiments of an administration, rebuilding Dili and promoting reconciliation, criticisms have rained down from all directions.

While some East Timorese complain that Untaet lacks transparency, aid workers argue the UN response has been too slow and UN-attached officials pick holes in the fine print of moves to re-establish a credible banking system. There is also pervasive talk of corruption and wastage.

Given this, it seems the memories of many involved in East Timor are short indeed. Less than two years ago, the territory was still firmly held by Indonesia, while just a year back much of the militias' destruction had yet to be repaired. These days, it is set for independence next year, the schools are open, roads are maintained and Dili may still be shabby but roofs are going back on rather than going up in smoke.

Mr Vieira de Mello admits mistakes were made, especially at the outset when Untaet was moving into the vacuum left by the United Nations Mission in East Timor, which organised a 1999 referendum but was hounded out by militia violence. He adds that the UN should learn from the experience and increase its ability to respond more swiftly to future crises.

"Lessons learned? There are many as you can imagine, not least as we were not prepared to play this role, which is new as compared to classic [UN] peace-keeping roles," he says. "With the exception of Kosovo, which I know a little about since I started it, never before have we governed; fully administered a territory."

During Untaet's formative period staff learned on the job, and that process meant months of delays. Mr Vieira de Mello says he recruited some in the UN building in New York, asking them to abandon their plush desks for a country where most of the furniture had been burned or looted.

"There was no instruction manual attached to resolution 1272. So we proceeded in some areas by trial and error," Mr Vieira de Mello says. "I should have been able to press a button, as we do with the military and on the basis of standby arrangements with member states. I should have been able to bring to Dili in the early days of the mission a number of priority government expert teams, which I did not have. I had generalists [who] . . . had no experience in actual government."

With elections set for the end of next month to choose representatives to draw up a constitution, the end of the UN's dominance is in sight, although a lower-key mission subordinate to Timorese authority is a certainty. Mr Vieira de Mello says the success of UN involvement should be judged on at least four levels.

"The first one is obviously security: a stable and secure environment is probably the best legacy we can leave behind for the Timorese people. Not least because they have suffered enough. I am convinced that the vast majority want nothing but a peaceful environment for the future. "Secondly . . . a credible, sustainable public administration, free from the vices of the past. Third, truly democratic institutions, which as you can imagine is not easy to build after close to 500 years of non-autonomous and non-self governing status in this territory. But the embryo of those institutions are there, not least an independent judiciary. Last . . . is a sustainable fiscal basis for the medium and longer term."

It is a formidable checklist and one that cannot be assessed until the fledging Timorese state has survived its first few years. Mr Vieira de Mello says despite the many challenges faced by a people with no modern experience of self-rule, he remains optimistic.

"They may not know what democracy is but I think that they have learned what democracy is not. They have learned and they have paid a huge price for that. Can we expect perfect democratic institutions in a matter of two, 2.5 years? Of course not. I am amazed we have reached this stage with by and large a stable environment, and I am sure it will continue that way."