Free Republic

THE tragedy of East Timor would make the angels weep. Just as it was the Timorese civil war that in 1975 precipitated Indonesian military intervention, with all of its dolorous consequences, so it is civil conflict today that has precipitated Australian military intervention. The two interventions cannot be compared, of course. Hopefully, Australia's will be short and relatively non-violent. And no one in Australia wants to incorporate East Timor. But it is time to speak bluntly. The situation in East Timor is much worse than even most analysts and commentators realise. The savage killings and lawlessness of the past few...

THIS week Australia assumed responsibility for a new state: the poor, unstable and violent nation of East Timor. Our 1300-strong troop intervention has been triggered by the failure of East Timor's political system, a crisis within its armed forces, an internal ethnic rift between east and west regions and the combination of an inept Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, and an immobilised President, Xanana Gusmao, who cannot work together but who have made a joint appeal for Australian help. This is Australia's largest ground force intervention since the 1999 Interfet operation, the international force authorised by the UN Security Council that...