Austrailia Invades East Timor

Squaddy

Australia has taken over the airport of East Timor and is sendng in more than 1000 troops, armoured vehicles, helicopters, warships.

Howard claims he got permission from ET government, but nothing in writing. The president of East Timor has disappeared!

Wonder why Howard met Bush and Blair a few days ago?

We're not getting the full story yet, but here's a good place to start. This blog's been pretty good on keeping up to date with Australian stories. www.yournewreality.blogspot.com

From the blog : "So seriously does the Australian government view the chaos and carnage now spreading in East Timor, that they have deployed a military force to the neighbouring nation larger than either of the 'War On Terror' deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the streets of the capital Dili, and in the east and west of Timor, police are shooting at other police, and soldiers have turned against fellow soldiers.

At least 20 people were killed when a police station was attacked.

Most of the 600-plus sacked soldiers took to the hills outside of Dili and have since been joined by other soldiers and police who have officially defected.

The leader of the army rebels, the Australian-trained Major Alfredo Reinado, welcomed the announcement of an intervention force as the only way to prevent civil war.

"This is the only solution," Major Reinado, the commander of a 600-strong breakaway force, told the BBC. "There is no other way, or it will be war forever."
The situation on the ground is so dangerous, prime Minister John Howard fears there will be casualties among the Australian soldiers and commandos now deployed.

The leader of the breakaway military group, Major Alfredo Reinado, says he will not allow his troops to shoot or engage in conflict with Australian soldiers. He wants to work with the Australians to return order to Dili, and the rest of East Timor.

"Don't worry, I'm with you. I'm with Australia," he told ABC News.

"I'm with peacekeeping forces. I'm ready to cooperate with them based on any agreement that will be reached by our President (Xanana Gusmao)."

So what's his problem? While he backs Gusmao, the major has rejected the authority of the rest of the government of East Timor, who he claims are an entity for communist forces who want to destroy the democracy and independence of five year old nation.

Major Reinado recieved top level military training in Australia last year, as did a number of the soldiers who have joined his breakaway faction."

So the 'REBEL' leader wants Australia to invade his country? So who's the enemy here?

East Timor just had a visit from Paul Wolfowitz as well, as head of the World Bank.

The Australian PM has warned that there will probably be Australian casualties. But from whose bullets?

Squaddy

East Timor has more than $50 billion worth of oil and gas reserves that austrailia has been trying to get its hands on and that east timor being the poorest nation in East Asia they tried to screw east timor over oil deals for years.
Dont you think its a little bit weird that Bush and Blair met days ago? Wonder what was discussed?

Dirk Gently

From what I understand of it Australia is responding to a plea for help from the government as they openly admitted they can't control the rebellion on their own. This has been building up the last while and is not a surprise.

I think the title of your thread is a bit alarmist considering they were asked to come and sort it out by the government. I'm sure there is dirty goings on behind the scenes and a government favourable to conditions set out by the World Bank will no doubt be formed but I’d hardly call it an invasion. If Australia didn't respond to the cry for help no doubt they would get slated for not helping out. It's a no win situation for them, not that I'm a big fan of Howard and Australian support of bush and Blair.

Australia will no doubt play a major role in east Timor and Australian companies will get major contracts but they were reluctently invited by the government and it’s not an invasion.

Ideo

the president of east timor requested international help. it was in some of the newspapers over the past couple of days so i would hardly call it an invasion!

another world

Yeah, title is probably a bit misleading if our current definition of an invasion is used. I'd use, 'Australia and other leading nations hired by ruling government for contractual favours in the future' probably the cynic in me. Based on Australia's current role in Iraq and historical influence in East Timor I doubt they are doing it the good of the East Timorese. So why would they? Well, of course, to protect their oil interests they got under Suharto's tyranny...

lostexpectation

i think it needs re-evaluting,
how can they be reluctant if they secure contracts out of it?
isn't creating the circumsatnaces of strife a handy way to invade?

just sounds like another countries people getting screwed from all sides.

mike65

Squaddy (and a few others) do you post on indymedia by any chance?

As stated the forces from 4 counties was requested and it sounds like a good example of international co-operation to stop choas before it has the chance to take hold in a fragile democracy.

More of this sort of thing.

Mike.

bonkey

Squaddy wrote:

Dont you think its a little bit weird that Bush and Blair met days ago? Wonder what was discussed?

Given that neither of them run Australia, I find it weird that you mention it in this thread, but not that they met in the first place. They do, after all, meet regularly, but its not every day that someone sees this meeting as some sort of grounds for a third party to "invade" a fourth party.

jc

Frederico

mike65 wrote:

Squaddy (and a few others) do you post on indymedia by any chance?

As stated the forces from 4 counties was requested and it sounds like a good example of international co-operation to stop choas before it has the chance to take hold in a fragile democracy.

More of this sort of thing.

Mike.

Yeah I want to see more of this sort of thing in Africa, wait which countries have the most diamonds?

Squaddy

mike65 wrote:

Squaddy (and a few others) do you post on indymedia by any chance?
Mike.

No never heard of it.

mike65

Frederico wrote:

Yeah I want to see more of this sort of thing in Africa, wait which countries have the most diamonds?

Well lets see, how about Zimbabwe (invaded by Western cabel recently?) or Congo (invaded by western cabal recently?) or Botswana (invaded by western cabal recently?) and so on.

Mike.

Frederico

yes, my point exactly..

ChityWest

This link might be relevant to this thread :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5022674.stm

I reckon its just as well they 'invaded' after all - here is one snip from the article:


Militias armed with guns and machetes have rampaged though the capital, Dili, torching houses and vehicles.

Hundreds of people ran screaming from their homes, seeking shelter in churches, as Australian troops in tanks tried to restore order.

The fighting has left at least 20 people dead in the past week.

Australian troops in tanks rebuffed a group of men armed with machetes who had gathered in the centre of the capital, Dili.

The BBC's Phil Mercer, in Dili, says the troops have made a difference, but adds that immense challenges lie ahead.

Peacekeepers

The Australian soldiers are to be reinforced in the coming days by hundreds more troops, as well as forces from Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal.

lostexpectation

squaddy linked is too wacky I think this gives a better picture, although, i don't see any blogs for timor itself

http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2006/05/is-xanana-gusmao-staging-coup.html

One source that will not be surprised by Gusmao's power bid is the World Socialist Website. The WSWS, which has established a reputation on the left as an authority on East Timorese affairs, produced an article yesterday which claimed that Australia was backing a bid by Gusmao and Ramos-Horta to depose Alkatiri. Observing that Alfredo Reinaldo, a leader of some of the rebellious soldiers, was trained in Australia and favours the intervention of foreign troops in East Timor, the WSWS argues that the instability of recent weeks has been orchestrated by Canberra in an attempt to bring Alkatiri to his knees. The WSWS argues that Australia wants to get rid of Alkatiri because he has attempted to lessen East Timor's dependence on Canberra, confront John Howard over his country's exploitation of Timor Strait gas and oil reserves, and establish closer economic ties with Europe and China.


What point are you making with those african countries why you don't invade countries that are allowing your contractors free reign

Nuttzz

a career writing headlines for the sun or the star beckons for someone

GrumPy

Nuttzz wrote:

a career writing headlines for the sun or the star beckons for someone

They prolly wont even do that well :rolleyes:

Squaddy

This may be a bit stupid but i was thinking about this. If the country is in such a chaotic state then why is there was only around 20 people killed when it has a population of 1,040,880? Doesnt that seem a bit strange?

ChityWest

I think the reason for the low death count is because that the austraiilian army are sitting there in tanks keeping gangs of militia from having a free hand. (imo).

Sand

Security is the most vital absolute requirement for development - the U.N. evacuate at the hint of trouble, so to even get them in and working means someone providing troops/guns/order. If the East Timor government is in desperate straits to the point where it cant do this and requests assistance then its to be applauded that the Australians and others were willing to answer. Rwanda could have been nipped in the bud by a rapid deployment of troops there long before the massacres became epic in scale, so Squaddys demonisation of the Australians for acting fast to try and stabilise East Timor is, whilst totally unsurprising, wrong on so many levels.

If the country is in such a chaotic state then why is there was only around 20 people killed when it has a population of 1,040,880? Doesnt that seem a bit strange?

At least 20 according to the article, and hundreds having fled their home - but most importantly the East Timor government, army and police force dont seem able to stop it and in the case of the latter two appear to be involved in it. Hence the call for "neutral" assistance. Should the Australians wait till 100 are killed? 1000? 5000? Whats the magic number that enables quick (or late?) intervention to stop a civil war taking root?