Thanks for the opportunity to talk about my time in East Timor.  I was fortunate enough to serve 11 months over there as the Team Leader for a group of UN Military Liaison Officers.  All were full-time military people from around the world.  I spent the first half in Oecussi and the second half in Maliana.

Role  Like all good military undertaking it all starts with a mission. Our mission in Timor was to monitor and report the security environment within the border districts and assist the continuance of constructive border relationship between the TNI and BPU in order to ensure the restoration and maintenance of public security to enable the holding of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 2007.  This broke down into several specific tasks:  To maintain a permanent UN Military presence to assist TNI and BPU develop and maintain constructive working relationship and ensure a secure and stable border region within the AO is sustained  To observe and report on the security situation and on security related issues occurring in the districts.  To conduct mobile patrols that will monitor observe and report security related activities  Facilitate outstanding border demarcation processes as requested by the parties and approved by the SRSG Liaise with UN agencies and local authorities in order to evaluate and facilitate the assigned tasks.  So in few words the task was to get out and meet and talk to people and find out what was going on. All of this unarmed and without access to weapons. One of the first things I found out was that my daily report on our activities went almost unedited before the SRSG (Special Representative of the Secretary General) the very next morning. He relied on our unbiased opinions to find out the truth of what was happening out and about. This bypassed the usual bureaucracy.  Conditions in East Timor  Overall the climate in East Timor is tropical. The minimum temperature range is 18-21°C while the maximum temperature range is 26-32°C. The rainy season in Oecussi begins later than the rest of the country in November and is usually accompanied by a westerly monsoon. For us the months of May and October are months of change from dry to wet season.  The ecology of East Timor is influenced by its topography and hence it is dominated by a coastal ecosystem where flat low lying areas are used for rice growing and the mountain regions are used for corn and other food crops.  East Timor’s seas are the habitat of many species of fish, including fish that have high economic value such as tuna, skipjack, mackerel, and snapper. The entire coastline has exposed coral reefs that are a source of food and shelter for many kinds of sea organisms, and are also could be a valuable natural tourist attraction.  There is widespread deforestation. The farmers use a slash and burn technique especially just before the wet season to prepare the land for crops.  The population is approximately 1.2 million people with an average age of about 15 and most young people are without gainful employment. The average life expectancy is 49. The country is predominantly subsistence farming with small excesses sold to finance transport and other needs. Transportation costs in the country are a significant cost to the community being over 25% of income.  Oecussi is and does feel isolated from the rest of the country and this affects their attitudes to the government in Dili and the rest of the country.

Here is a view of the Tono River valley in Oecussi. You can see the grey gravelly bottom of the river running to the coast between the very steep and rugged hills

Typically the roads are cut when trees fall across them as the people only have hand tools to clear them and an apathy about doing someone else’s work.

In Oecussi especially the roads run up the rivers during the dry like here.

Roads throughout the country suffer from landslides

Our office  Our offices may not look like much in the photos however they were better than what the locals have. These “temporary” buildings have been moved a couple of times and are very near their end of life but they were waterproof. They had 24 hour power, fast internet and phone access all via a satellite dish. I certainly became an expert in maintaining and resetting the system. We also had pressurised showers (cold water) and flushing toilets although you certainly could not drink the water as it was proven contaminated.

UN Facilities in Oecussi but typical of those through the border regions outside Dili.

Public Amenities  Most towns outside of Dili if they have public generation of electricity it lasts generally only 6PM till Midnight and may not be every night. People who need reliable power generate their own.  There is very limited district hospital capabilities and if you get sick you tend to fly to Darwin. Again limited electricity means almost no x-ray capability outside Dili.  Very limited telephone / mobile phone / internet coverage outside Dili. For example only one company outside Timor Telecom had internet access in the whole of Oecussi and it was slow. Timor Telecom had two public computers. One of the most immediate benefits I did on arrival was organize two spare computers for the use of the NGO’s. As a side benefit this also gave us access to them to hear what was going on and developed a friendship between our organizations.  There were only two radio channels being Radio Democratic Timor Leste (the official government channel) and community radio (which operated when there was power).  The limitations include no newspapers except Dili, sewerage and water in main towns only, limited and relatively expensive transport and few hotels outside Dili. These soon got filled up as the mission expanded during the second half of my time there.

The five star hotel accommodation

Usual squat toilet arrangement with water trough for flushing and for a shower.

One of the benefits of the UN was the twice weekly shuttle service of the MI-8 helicopters. These transported people and spare parts. NGO’s and UN staff rode fairly freely if they booked but it provided only limited service to the locals who were forced to rely on ferries, buses or private vehicles. Seen pictured here is a group of eye doctors and nurses who came to issue sunglasses and do minor surgery for a week period.

Timorese Border Police  The Unit Policia Fronteir of UPF was the Timorese police responsible for border control. They number about 200 persons and work shifts at the official border crossings and patrol adjacent to these as well. They lived in and occupied primitive facilities such as this shown but maintained high morale.

UPF Post at Post 6 in District of Oecussi

Much of our time was spent mentoring them in patrolling and basic infantry skills. I must say they were not very effective but this was more from lack of equipment and training than for any other reason. They were meant to be fed by the government but this did not always work so eventually the system paid them an allowance and let them organise local arrangements. They had also adopted in very limited ways and in isolated cases the minor corruption that many Asian nations suffer from. Mostly this consisted of seeking bribes to facilitate border crossings.

Indonesian Military  By contrast the Indonesian military were located opposite the UPF and had new facilities with good equipment and uniforms. The majority being Muslims they did not drink but they certainly smoked. A packet of cigarettes in Timor was US$1 and none of your mild or extra milds here. Most people smoked. I remember one memorable trip as a guest of the TNI travelling through West Timor to a meeting in Motaain. I was in a TNI Suzuki Vitara with two motorcycle outriders to clear the other traffic off the road. The Corporal escort I had loved the trip and the power he exercised on behalf of his Battalion. Fortunately no-one was hurt in this high speed trip.

TNI Post at Batugade

UN and other Agencies  In most areas of the country we had a mix of outsiders working to help the local population. These included:        UNOPS        Caritas        OzGreen        Philipino Construction Company        UNDP        Oxfam        Portuguese teachers ( teaching the Timorese teachers Portuguese so they could teach the children)  Most were involved in food production and health programs. Most were quite lowly paid relative to the UN people but were highly motivated to help the local populace. We interacted with all of the agencies and helped them in whatever way we could.

Security Situation  The reality was that during my time there the situation was generally calm and peaceful. The one exception was when Major Reinaldo stole those weapons and in the aftermath was eventually pursued by the Australian forces. His first robbery was only 5 kilometres from my base in Maliana and we were the first on the scene with armed UN police behind us. I later was checked out very thoroughly by what I now believe was his escort bodyguard vehicle after the Australian forces had attacked his hill top hideout and he escaped. Quite scary but fortunately I had a clearly Chinese officer with me that day.   Despite all the rhetoric after the police and army clash in April 2006 the majority of the people are just getting on with their lives – remembering that growing food is their predominant requirement.   The TNI do bring problems as they are heavily armed and have a history of domination over the people throughout all of Timor. They also greatly outnumber the UPF and have access to heavier weapons such as machine guns. We had one incident we calmed down where a patrol “strayed” across the border by 3 kilometres despite a local guide carrying the normal patrol equipment including a LMG. Ultimately the guides were arrested and paid money to return home whilst the soldiers were simply escorted back home. Much of the infrastructure is still trashed despite all the years since 1999/2000. As shown the old police station in Oecussis – destroyed in 1999 is still awaiting repairs. In the mean time the police operate out of deserted UN buildings that were restored or built during the early Interfet days. The government is very slowly restoring many of the buildings but much of the private buildings have disputes over ownership as the owners fled into West Timor and are not yet repatriated or been able to sell their properties. Most of the situations we got involved in were local domestic problems such as wives running away across the border to get away from violence or other unhappy situations. Given a heavy reliance on a dowry system and the high cost of “purchasing” a wife in many districts this was not always solved peacefully.

My Role  My leadership role mainly centred around:           Managing diversity – at various stages I had Brazilian, Portuguese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Philipino, Balngladesh and Chinese officers working for me. All with varying motivations, English literacy and driving skills. They all came from army, air-force and marines. We also worked along side people from many nations of the world. I needed to work to their strengths and try and deal with their weaknesses.        Support through the loneliness – I was lucky as I got a trip home every 3 months but the others only got 1 trip home but did visit local asian places for another 2 trips out of timor.        My soldiers earning immense amount of money relatively. (We were paid a subsistence allowance of US$3000 per month compared to an average income of US$1-3 per day)        Preventing abuse of locals – in light of the above there was a tremendous temptation to use this abundance of money for evil purposes. Some people did have “mission” wives but not on my staff.        Active listening – to pick up the subtleties of what people were saying versus what they thought we wanted to hear.        Using interpreters /language assistants to get the information from people balanced against the particular persons political affiliations as well as friendships of family relationships.        Stuff breaks and trying to find out how to fix it. In many cases vital equipment had been given to the locals in the close up of the mission before the troubles and now needed to be gotten back from them.        UN “Rules” on what help we could or more likely could not give to various organisations or locals.

Local welcome committee dressed in traditional tice

Summary  It was a tremendous opportunity and I am ever thankful for the opportunity to have served in this role as my career reaches its end.  The UN is a hard organisation to work for as it is very bureaucratic and is filled with frustratingly self interested people. My statistics is that: -          60% actively do nothing as they plan their next break out of mission and will; -          30% are actively working towards their next job and may help you if this primary goal is met by helping you; and -          10% are the actual ones that do work and know how to organise work. You find these people and then put them in your speed dial when you need to get things done.  In my naivety I thought the aim of the UN was to help the people of East Timor but alas it really is about perpetuating the UN itself. It has rigid rules that really bear no semblance of how modern business operates.  I met some extraordinary people from other armed forces but I also met some bone-lazy people who were only interested in the cash.  Would I go back – the answer is you bet without a moments hesitation and I would say to anyone offered a position grab it with both hands and do your best. I hope I did and many people said as I was leaving they were sorry to see me go so I hope I did make a small difference.

UN medal presentation ceremony