Australian city cleans up from the crisis in E. Timor

Australian city cleans up from the crisis in E. Timor

By Kurt Schork

DARWIN, Australia (Reuters): War is hell. But the peace that
follows can be damned profitable.

Just ask the northern Australian port of Darwin -- current
jumping-off point for the U.N. intervention force in East Timor.
Soldiers, aid workers, international bureaucrats and journalists
from around the world are streaming through this city en route to
Dili, East Timor's devastated capital.

Catering to the needs of these masters of disaster is big
business. Darwin, a city of about 85,000 people, is taking the
invasion in stride.

Laid back, friendly residents simply shake their heads at the
antics of some passers-through.

"The rains are just about to start and this is the end of the
tourist season. But things have stayed very busy on account of
Timor," explained Rob, a taxi driver.

"A man from the United Nations hired me instead of a rental
car for two days because he couldn't drive. All we did was go
from shop to shop in the city while he bought things to take to
East Timor.

"His kit filled the car when I finally took him out to the
RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base for the flight."

Hotel rooms are in short supply, especially at the top end of
the market, and restaurants and bars remain crowded. Shops
selling camping gear can't possibly meet demand.

"We've had aid groups come in and spend A$7,000 (US$4,550) or
A$8,000 in an hour on basic items like backpacks, mosquito nets,
camp stoves, water pumps and purification tablets for their
people headed into Timor," explained John Bennett of the N.T.
Trading Post in Darwin.

"We're not computerized so I couldn't tell you exactly how
much extra business we've done, but it's considerable. We're busy
from the moment we open until we shut up shop and this is
normally a pretty slow time of year for us."

One de rigueur item for East Timor's scorching tropical
climate is the hydration pack: a small backpack with a bladder
big enough to hold several liters of water and a plastic tube
that makes it possible to drink while keeping one's hands free.

Darwin retailers can't get enough of them. Photographers,
cameramen and soldiers find the hydration pack functional.
Others seem to view it as an obligatory fashion accessory. One
aid worker was overheard placing an order for a hydration pack in
fuchsia so that it would match her sunglasses.

Pro-Jakarta militia groups destroyed or stole virtually
everything of value in East Timor after residents there voted in
favor of independence in an August 30 referendum.

Food, water and shelter are obvious problems, but the lack of
reliable ground transportation is another major constraint for
virtually everyone operating in East Timor other than the U.N.
intervention army, known as Interfet.

As a result, the demand for new and used four-wheel drive
vehicles and the gear that goes with them -- jerry cans for fuel
and water, winches, jumper cables, spare tyres, hi-lift jacks and
the like -- is insatiable in Darwin.

"Timor has had a real impact on our business," said Allen
Carter, proprietor of New State Motors in Darwin.

"Prices have gone up at the auction where dealers buy used
vehicles. It is a real seller's market in terms of four-wheel
drive vehicles."

So much a seller's market that one reporter looking at used
vehicles at the weekend had a dealer trying to peddle him a year-
old truck with substantial mileage for A$2,000 more than he could
buy the same vehicle new across the street.

Giant Hercules C-130 aircraft ferry people and some emergency
cargo from Darwin to Dili, but most vehicles and bulk stores go
by ship.

"We've had seven or eight weeks of strong business dealing
with clients like the U.S. Army, the United Nations, various aid
agencies and new organizations," explained Ray Miller of Perkins
Shipping in Darwin.

"We sent some U.S. Army vehicles over that were valued at A$1
million each. They told us they were for surveillance and had all
kinds of communications gear in them. 'Don't drop them and don't
try to look inside' was the bottom line."

Perkins now runs a weekly shuttle of containerized commercial
cargo back and forth between Darwin and Dili and is starting up
another shuttle between Singapore -- where it expects a lot of
bulk food shipments to originate -- and Dili."

Nearly 500 businessmen gathered in the Australian capital,
Canberra, this week to learn more about the opportunities
associated with East Timor's long-term physical and political
reconstruction now Indonesia has agreed to its independence.

They heard that hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts
will be let by international agencies. Meeting the food and
shelter needs of hundreds of thousands of East Timorese is a
project that will take years, not months.

Darwin -- closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney -- hopes to
capitalize on its proximity to East Timor.

And of course peacekeepers, aid workers, administrators and
hacks will come to work in East Timor in their thousands,
demanding the creature comforts Darwin hopes to supply.

Already some Darwin entrepreneurs have shipped 3,000 cans of
beer and a refrigerator to Dili in a Perkins container.

The cans began selling briskly at A$5 a piece. A few nights
later another Australian opened up a place offering beer at less
than half that price -- a development interpreted by Dili's
growing expatriate community as a sure sign the city is getting
back on its feet.