At a news conference in New York, Mr. Annan said, ''What is important is in the next couple of months that we need to insure security and law and order and make sure things do not get out of hand.''

He again called on Indonesia to insure security in East Timor, saying it was too early to say if a United Nations peacekeeping force would be needed. ''Now the results are out, and the vote is clear as to what the people of East Timor want,'' he said. ''They have spoken. I hope that with this message the pro-integrationists will realize that they are at the end of the road and there is no need for any more senseless violence.''

The successful holding of the referendum and its unequivocal result were a heady accomplishment for the East Timorese, an impoverished and poorly educated people who have not had control of their territory for hundreds of years.

Under Portuguese rule, they formed the least valued and least developed part of an empire, of interest mainly to Catholic missionaries.

When Portugal set East Timor free in 1975, along with the rest of its colonies, there was only a brief interlude of local disarray before Indonesia, a new foreign power bringing a new foreign language, again took control of the tiny region.

In contrast to Portugal, Indonesia poured resources into East Timor, but most went to support the huge military presence that was needed to subdue a separatist rebellion.

In Dili, East Timor's capital, the announcement of the result this morning was held in an atmosphere of intense threat as truckloads of anti-independence militiamen, armed and organized by the Indonesian military, set up roadblocks and took control of access to the airport, according to residents.