Re-enter the United Nations: A role for the Peacebuilding Commission in East Timor?

On 23 June 2006 the UN proudly launched its Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) seeking to reverse a situation where international efforts to rebuild war-torn societies had, more often than not, failed. Mindful of such cases as Haiti, Cambodia, Somalia, and Liberia, where security deteriorated once international support was withdrawn, obviously the drafters of the PBC had much to learn from the East Timor (Timor-Leste) example. This was highlighted by the massive civil unrest sparked off in East Timor in early 2006, returning to world attention in February 2008 with the near assassination of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) president and the continuing humanitarian crisis. Initially, only Burundi and Sierra Leone came under the purview of the PCB, although emergency funding had also been advanced to Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic. In December 2007, Guinea-Bissau, became the third country to win PBC support as a state in danger of backsliding into violence. Given the ad hoc nature of past UN missions in East Timor/Timor-Leste, the hybrid character of security operations conducted independent of the UN flag, and the general lack of governance capacity inside the new nation, this article explicitly argues in favor of extending PBC commitment to Timor-Leste