Confessions of a Misguided Trio

Australia Breaks International Law... Again...

This post is a work in progress...

East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation commission is expected to release their report publicly very soon. The commission spent 3 years collecting evidence to produce a 2,500 page report on Indonesia's 25 year occupation of East Timor.

News Report available here...

'... Foreign Minister Alexander Downer indicated Canberra preferred for East Timor to remain legally part of Indonesia and actively lobbied the government in Jakarta to delay the independence vote.'

'The commission said Australian policy after the 1975 invasion by Indonesia was influenced by a desire to negotiate a favorable outcome on the maritime boundary in the oil and gas rich Timor Sea.'

'The report said Australia's actions were in violation of its duties under international law to support and refrain from undermining the East Timorese people's right to self-determination.'

During the Second World War a contingent of Australian and Dutch troops landed in East Timor where the Australian forces were left with little choice but to fight a guerrilla campaign in an attempt to disrupt the numerically superior Japanese forces. This disruption was achieved, in part, courtesy of a remarkable close friendship that was forged with the Timorese, who supplied and protected the troops. As a result of the support the allied troops only lost forty men, the Timorese however payed a much higher brutal price for their loyalty, with as many as 40,000 people or 14% of the population being killed.

At the end of the Second World War East Timor was devastated. Its miniscule economy was the outcome of years of Portuguese neglect, and further cripple by the war, the survivors were both physiologically and physically in dire straits. When the Australians left at the end of the War, they dropped leaflets which promised that they would never forget the East Timorese assistance in their time of need.

posted by Mark @ 1:25 AM