The Black Hawk helicopter swoops low over the coast east of Dili, providing the first look in weeks outside the devastated capital, Dili. The winding road hugging the coast is empty.

Before the killing, looting and burning rampages, the road between Dili and East Timor's second-biggest town, Baucau, was the busiest in the territory.

Now there are no children playing on the white sand beaches along the coast.

Nobody is bent double in the fields as before. No children stand by the road waving. There are not even any of the Indonesian military and militia roadblocks where travellers only weeks ago were searched, harassed and sometimes beaten.

The biggest shock comes as the helicopter banks near Manatuto, a once-thriving seaside village. Terrible things appear to have happened here.

Half the houses have been razed. The buildings still standing have doors and windows thrown open and debris strewn in gardens and along the streets.

There are few if any people. No movement can be detected from the helicopter.

A soldier manning a machine-gun yells above the roar of the helicopter that the road will be difficult to secure when multinational troops start to fan out across the territory. Its edges often drop sharply down cliffs and wind through narrow mountain passes perfect for snipers.

This is Interfet Commander Peter Cosgrove's first trip to Baucau, where about 120 Australian troops are dug in at the windswept airport a few kilometres outside the town.

A banner across the airport building beckons "Welcome" in the Bahasa Indonesia language. But dozens of Indonesian soldiers lounging around the building look surly towards the Australian Army major-general, who is followed by six bodyguards, their fingers always on their Steyr rifles.

None of the Indonesians salute the man who will soon take over responsibility for security in East Timor following the withdrawal of about 20,000 Indonesian troops.

Waiting to call on the local Indonesian military commander, General Cosgrove admits that four days after the first of his troops landed in East Timor "it's plain there are serious problems still".

Flying out of Dili, black smoke billowed from fires on the town's outskirts and three truckloads of Indonesian soldiers were driving around shooting into the air.

General Cosgrove cannot say when all the Indonesian troops and soldiers will leave. "An exact timetable for all of them to come out I would say is not yet on the table," he says. After meeting the Indonesian commander, he says he is "more confident his heart is in the right place".

He then makes a quick tour of his own soldiers dug in around the airport perimeter, coming across Tim Brand, of Dimboola, Victoria. The commander and private exchange pleasantries about the weather before General Cosgrove promises many more Australian soldiers will soon be in Baucau to keep him company. "And I hope you stay in good shape until then," he tells the soldier.