THE UNITED NATIONS doesn’t seem to be very good at nation-building:

A DELEGATION of senior Australian diplomats last week toured an Indonesian region considered by the UN to be more dangerous than Baghdad.

Australian deputy ambassador in Indonesia Peter Rowe and several other diplomats made an official visit to West Timor, an impoverished half-island in eastern Indonesia.

West Timor is rated phase 5 by the UN, the highest danger-level alert, warranting immediate evacuation.

Phase 5 bars UN officials from working without extraordinary security clearance, stifling aid to a dirt-poor district now home to thousands of East Timorese refugees. . . .

Gregorius Maubili, deputy regent of Belu, next to the East Timor border, said the UN should rethink its assessment of West Timor as a matter of priority.

“Maybe to withdraw it is not an easy matter, but at least the status should be adjusted to reflect the current situation,” Dr Maubili said.

“With the phase 5 alert, the lives of the people are disrupted because international aid is not able to come here – this applies especially to handling the East Timorese refugees,” he said. “We have been punished by this rating.”

Dr Maubili said the burden of the East Timorese refugees had been borne for four years in a district with limited means. “We have tried to contact the UN in order to get an evaluation of conditions at this time,” he added.

Not terribly impressive.