GENEVA -- The independence of East Timor gives hope to people fighting for their rights around the world, AFP quoted the UN's Human Rights Chief Mary Robinson as saying on Sunday.

"East Timor is truly a beacon of hope for people around the world struggling to rebuild their societies on a basis of justice and human rights," she said in a statement.

"The people of East Timor have shown the world that freedom and justice cannot forever be denied," Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

The tiny territory of 750,000 people becomes the world's 192nd independent nation at midnight (1500 GMT) on Sunday.

Meanwhile, East Timorese walked to Church Sunday for the last time as a people ruled by outsiders.

At sunrise every Sunday the waterfront capital of this staunchly Catholic half-island is a sea of people walking in their best clothes, under arches of Bougainvillea and oleander trees, to the dozens

For 24 years they prayed for freedom. In their final dawn before full independence, they prayed for peace and unity to accompany the freedom which will be declared at midnight (1500 GMT).

"The spirit within us has emerged and with that spirit we can shine and stand alone," Dili's Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel Peace laureate, said in his sermon.

"We celebrate this day of independence by thanking God. If God had not been with us, we could not have achieved it. We could not have survived." At midnight East Timor's flag will rise and its 750,000

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will hand over authority to Parliament Leader Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, who will then proclaim independence.