Re: [OT] Re: InterFET

Chip Dunning wrote:
>I heard about the
> skirmish - assuming you mean the one that got two Aussie's wounded
(one was
> serious in the neck region) and two Indo militia killed. Indo is
claiming
> the militia were actually police and on their side of the border -
i.e. West
> Timor.

That was 2 seperate incidents:

In the first, a group of SAS were escorting an aid convoy. A sniper
opened up with an automatic weapon from a tree within 40 metres. 2
Australians wounded ( one with a miraculously nonfatal wound in the
neck, the other with a really nasty leg wound requiring extensive
surgical reconstruction). 2 militia killed in the immediate
counterattack.

In the second, an Australian patrol approaching the border with West
Timor was fired upon, and returned fire. Exactly who it was on the Indo
side is still questionable - some guys in T-shirts (probably militia)
were mixed in with both Indonesian Army regulars and Indonesian Police.
According to Indonesian reports, one policeman was killed. Latest gen
from them says that it was Indonesian Army who fired first. Frankly
though, if they said that the sun rises in the east, I'd still want a
second source.

The latter incident is notable because it was captured on film, by 2
separate cameras. Also, the Indonesian forces were working from a Dutch
Map from the 1920s, while the Australians were using Indonesian military
maps (to avoid exactly this type of problem where the border is a bit
diffuse). The Indo local commander will be in really Deep Doodoo as he
admits on film that the Australians were still in East Timor, contrary
to the Official Line. Guess he was just elated not to have been hit
(quite understandable) and wasn't thinking of political considerations,
just the facts. 

A good source is http://www.abc.net.au/news/etimor/default.htm

(Donning my Boy's Own Annual Amateur Intelligence Analyst hat with Magic
Decoder Ring in Brim here)

In theory, you should be able to get a balanced view by going to an
Indonesian source such as Antara or Kompas. Certainly they should be
looked at, as what they don't say is often more revealing than what they
do say. For the record, I have no connection and never have had with any
Australian Intelligence organisation, BTW.

Antara (the Official News Agency) actually has some articles about East
Timor, but requires registration (which funnily enough, I'm a bit loath
to do)
http://www.antara.co.id/english.asp

Apart from Antara (the government's mouthpiece) Censorship's pretty
heavy, though far lighter than it was even a few years ago.

http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/9910/13/ENGLISH/tni.htm
has an interesting view of the second incident, not quite in accordance
with what can be seen on the 2 films (one Australian Army, the other an
Independent News Service).

There are other Indonesian news services - LookSmart has a category of
them - but as they're mainly in Bahasi Indonesian, and Babelfish only
groks European languages, they're of less use to most.

I'd rather not go into how this relates to FMA or whatever, as it
wouldn't feel right: some poor bastards have got themselves killed for
just being near some idiot in their group who decided to shoot at armed
Australians, and I feel for their families.
 
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