Australia to end historic Timor peacekeeping mission
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-12 15:44

Canberra is to begin withdrawing its last peacekeeping troops from East Timor, signalling the end of a six-year mission that heralded a controversial new era of regional intervention for Australia and one of its largest military ventures since the Vietnam War.

Australian troops prior to their delpoyment in East Timor.[AFP/file]

Australia dispatched its military to East Timor in 1999 amid violent chaos that surrounded a UN-backed vote in favour of separating from Indonesia, which occupied the half-island former Portuguese colony in 1976.

More than 1,400 people were believed to have died and entire towns were razed as Indonesian troops and their local militia proxies rampaged until the arrival of peacekeepers led by up to 5,000 Australians.

However the deployment, a prelude to a new Australian foreign policy that has included military intervention in the Solomon Islands and a program to restore law and order in Papua New Guinea, led to a collapse in relations between Canberra and Jakarta that continues to resonate.

Monday's handover comes a month after the official end of the United Nations' military operations in East Timor, which had already been extended after two years of UN stewardship ceded to Timorese sovereignty in 2002.

Attending the ceremony will be Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, the UN's special representative in the country, Sukehiro Hasegawa, and Australian army land commander Major General Ken Gillespie.

Lieutenant General Brian Cox, the commander of Canberra's Timor deployment, told the Australian Associated Press that his country should be proud of its involvement in the birth of the world's newest independent nation.

"That's it. It will be the end of an era. It's great in some ways. We came here in very difficult circumstances. Australia has significantly contributed to the security of this nation," he said.

"We are leaving them in a position where they can actually grow and prosper."

The full withdrawal of Australian troops is expected to be completed by June 24, but some two dozen personnel are to remain as part of an defence cooperation operation, military spokesman Lieutenant Ian Lumsden told AFP.

Australia lost two military personnel during the its operations in East Timor, both in non-combat situations.

However the greatest casualty was its ties with Indonesia, which froze in the wake of an intervention that was seen as the start of a more aggressive Australian foreign policy towards its Asian and Pacific neighbours.

Although there has been recent friction over the jailing of a young Australian woman caught smuggling drugs into Indonesia, relations have begun to thaw in recognition of Australian help in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings and last year's tsunami.

Australia's withdrawal from Timor also comes at a time when Canberra's relationship with Dili is still on rocky ground thanks to a lingering dispute over the ownership of lucrative oil and gas fields under the Timor sea.

After three years of wrangling, the two countries are reported to be nearing a deal that could see Timor gain access to new wealth which would help it rise from its current position as one of Asia's poorest nations.

Alkatiri denied last week however that any agreement had been finalised.

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