An Indonesian warship docked at the waterfront in Dili yesterday - two days before the country celebrates independence and looks forward to a future based, as president-elect Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao put it, on love.
The unexpected arrival of the ship brought some alarm over security arrangements for the fleeting and apparently reluctant visit of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Contrary to an agreement between the two governments, the ship brought 170 security personnel, double the number agreed, and they brought machine-guns, according to a well informed source.
Late last night Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, Timor Leste's foreign minister to be, was in negotiation with a delegation of Indonesian diplomats and security officials who had arrived on the ship. It was "a difficulty not a crisis", a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Dili. He said the ship, which drew a large crowd and television cameras, flew the Indonesian flag in another breach of what had been agreed.
"We are trying to be fraternal," he added, recalling that Mr Gusmao had recently visited Jakarta to personally invite the Indonesian leader, who has been under pressure from the military and from a majority of politicians to avoid independence celebrations in its former vassal.
Dr Ramos-Horta said earlier this week that it "infuriated" him that people had planted corn and vegetables over the graves of Indonesian soldier at a cemetery which President Megawati is to visit with the Timorese president. It is opposite the Santa Cruz cemetery, scene of an infamous 1991 massacre. Earlier yesterday Mr Gusmao paid tribute to international solidarity in the years of struggle. Now he said, "we want to build a society in which people love each other. We must change the mentality in people."
On the thorny subject of reconciliation he said "the authors of crimes should be made to apologise, to serve some sentence and go back to be accepted by the community".
Meanwhile, in a moving ceremony in a small Dili park, the head of Ireland Aid, Mr David Donoghue, unveiled a monument to one of Timor's woman resistance heroes. The inscription on the simple stone structure says: "dedicated from the Government of Ireland to the people of Timor Lorosae".
Intended to reinforce Ireland Aid's strong gender focus in a still patriarchal society, the monument is in memory of Rosa "Muki" Bonaparte who was shot on the first day of the Indonesian invasion. She was the only woman on the then left-wing Fretilin central committee in 1975. Xanana and his Australian wife, Kirsty, were to have been there but the baby, Alexandre, was sick. He sent instead the leader of Timor's women's movement, Ms Maria Domingas Fernandez, adviser to the chief minister, Mr Mari Alkatiri.
At a UN military farewell ceremony in the morning, the UN transitional administration's head, Mr Sergio de Mello, pinned a 90-day service medal on Lieut Col John Courtney of the Army in front of the seafront government building.
Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili was in a feisty mood, talking about the negative social impact of foreigners in Timor at his press conference. "There are houses full of prostitutes now" and girls were dressing immodestly, he said. Girls aged 15 to 18 were being flown in on Merpati (Indonesian) flights from Thailand.