FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Almost ten years ago, UN representative Sergio Vieira de Mello was killed in Iraq. His earlier work deserves to be remembered.

In 1999, the United Nations officially established a peacekeeping mission in East Timor (Timor-Leste). The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) aimed to stabilize the newly independent Southeast Asian nation, which had been ravaged by militias backed by the Indonesian military.

The Indonesian occupation of East Timor lasted more than two decades and claimed around 200,000 lives. In May 1999, the Indonesian authorities agreed to a UN-monitored referendum in which the 800,000 people of East Timor would be given the opportunity to determine their own destiny.

Read more from Kiran Mohandas Menon in The Diplomat.