Keeping the peace: stories of Australian peacekeepers

Indonesia, East Timor and the United Nations

Indonesia invaded East Timor, a colony of Portugal, in December 1975. With Portugal in the middle of a political revolution, East Timor was split between those favouring independence and those who wanted integration with Indonesia.

Indonesian rule proved repressive: in 24 years, it is estimated that between one and two hundred thousand East Timorese were killed or died from starvation and disease caused by the occupation. However, early in 1999 Indonesian President Habibie, facing political chaos at home, offered the East Timorese people a referendum, with the choice between autonomy within Indonesia and outright independence.
Australian civilian police participated in a United Nations operation registering voters and preparing for the referendum. Despite violence and intimidation by pro-Indonesian militia in the months before the August 1999 ballot, 95 per cent of those registered voted, more than three-quarters favouring independence.

After the vote, a wave of militia violence left an unknown number of East Timorese dead and thousands homeless. Indonesian forces failed to prevent or end the violence. After intense international pressure, on 12 September 1999 President Habibie agreed to allow a multinational force, led by Australia, to restore order.

Senior Sergeant Don Barnby

For Don Barnby, an Australian policeman serving in East Timor, his most emotional moment was when he arrived on voting day at a polling place in the mountain village of Hermera. In the pre-dawn mist, he found two or three thousand East Timorese who had camped out all night to ensure that the pro-Indonesian militia would not prevent them from voting.
During the day he had to face down a group of armed thugs, and later had to play cat and mouse to get the ballot papers taken out by helicopter. But his worst experience was being unable to help the local people in the days after the vote, when the militia ran amok and Indonesian forces, still in control of the territory, did nothing to stop them.

AWM P03248.122 Suai cathedral, scene of a massacre in 1999
AWM P03248.122

AWM P03248.140 The aftermath of the militia rampage: destruction in Dili, 1999
P03248.140