Informal portrait of an unidentified New Zealand Police Officer, a member of the United Nations ...

Informal portrait of an unidentified New Zealand Police Officer, a member of the United Nations Mission East Timor (UNAMET) with a Falintil member, holding an M16 automatic rifle, in the Falintil camp. Falintil was originally formed as the military wing of the Fretilin political party and both played a major part in the pro-Independence movement surrounding the referendum held on 30 August 1999 to allow the East Timorese to choose between autonomy within Indonesia or independence. Following the overwhelming vote for independence, the pro-Indonesian militia launched a campaign of destruction, arson and murder, killing approximately 1500 people and forcing 300,000 others into West Timor as refugees.