Missed Opportunities: The United Nations, Police Service and Defence Force Development in Timor-Leste, 1999–2004
“The UN's once-vaunted peace operation in Timor-Leste achieved many successes, overcoming a major humanitarian crisis and laying basic foundations for the future state's governance institutions. However, in the critical areas of police and military reform, the UN failed to exploit its unparalleled civil authority and relatively benign operating environment. Poor leadership, negligible planning and altogether unqualified UN police contingents produced security services devoid of adequate institutional development and woefully lacking in any democratic oversight. Largely as a result of the UN's failings in this regard, the unrest that erupted in May 2006 witnessed the total collapse of the Timorese police force.”