Ten years ago on Saturday the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence from a singularly brutal Indonesian occupation. A showcase for humanitarian intervention and state-building, the country has much left to do.

The international military intervention was without question justified. In reaction to the vote, Indonesian military and irregular forces ran amok in an orgy of violence, killing more than a thousand Timorese. The intervention achieved the narrow goal of restoring order, as did the 2006 return of international forces after fighting between police and army factions.