Is Australia being suckered into the wars of the Portuguese succesion.Thirty years of war in Angola and Mozambique have been the price Africans have paid for a third rate empire. Salazar must laughing in his grave at Howard's second dose of folly.

At last! An alternative to the feel-good, emotional claptrap we usually hear about East Timor.

It’s interesting to be reminded that the left, every-group-has-the-right-to-independence mob were all in favour of this preposterous and expensive (to Australia) “freeing” of East Timor, when their political arm, the ALP, was always happy to leave things they way they were; and it is quite weird that the Coalition finally did the dopey deed for them.

If Indonesia still had control of East Timor, criminals would not now be running around hacking into each other with machetes, and rendering terrified women and children homeless and, at one stage, bringing them to the brink of starvation. So, under a different Indonesian regime, bad things might have been done in East Timor. But, the East Timorese are now doing bad things to each other under the incompetent governance of people who thought they could run East Timor better than Indonesia did.

What a tragic and stupid affair the desire for a free East Timor has turned out to be. Australia’s part in the fiasco has to be the biggest mistake made by the Coalition Government in it’s ten years in office, and it will always be a blot on the otherwise excellent record of John Howard, who should have known better.

Oh, the poor Suharto government it just "had" to invade Timor Leste, following the election of a left-of-centre government. It would serve as such a terrible example. Imagine having elected governments. Imagine having left of centre governments. Such a crime.

Fortunately, Suharto's meeting with Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger a day before the invasion confirmed that he had the "right" to invade. It would have happened regardless of whether or not UDT/Fretlin were fighting each other. Suharto simply could not tolerate having a democratically elected government within the Indonesian archipelago.

Contrary to the author's claim, most Australians who are aware of Timor Leste are also aware that there was a brief civil war following the coup attempt by the UDT on August 11, 1975 which was over within a few weeks according to the aid organisations present at the time.

In the legislative elections of 2001 the UDT received 2.4 % of the popular vote and 2 out of 88 seats. In contrast Fretilin polled 57.4% of the vote and took 55 seats in the 88-seat Assembly.

As for the Balibo newsmen being killed as being "responsible for their own deaths", the people responsible are those who killed them. The reporters were in an East Timor which, at the time, was part of Portugal. They were killed in October by an Indonesian military incursion - the full invasion of East Timor wasn't until December.

As an outside observer, the perennial problems in East Timor seem to stem from a recurring cycle of poverty, poor education and lack of work, whether the country is self ruled or no. Many people, adult males in particular, appear to have nothing to do all day, and no meaningful work or productive interests. Their pre-occupation is how to survive the next few days, rather than acting upon long term goals. Wherever there are many people with nothing to do, only a minor incident can incite people into violence against individuals that they hold responsible for their situation in life. The individuals would typically be those associated with the local authority.

Unfortunately, this propensity for violence and disorder seems to be a common characteristic of former Latin colonies, whether Spanish or Portuguese. Only Latin countries rich in resources, like Brazil and Venezuela, which nevertheless have had periods of instability, avoid anarchy. A similar disorder is also observed in the Middle East. However, a people who live where there are limited resources should still be able to improve their situation, as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and many continental European countries have done.

I have to admit I was taken in by the stories about how these poor people needed self independance.
Then they shafted us on the oil deal. Seeing Gusmau and Ramos Horta totally ambivalent about some journalists or something being killed just goes to show the true colours of these people. They dont give a rats about the issues that were the platform of their rise to prominence, they've seccumbed to the lure of oil money and are cheap imitations of the dictators they so opposed in the past.

Tell me why is Australia at the forefront of a Portugese problem.
It is clearly against Australia's long term interests to involve itself. In a dispute that goes back to when the first Portugese seamen
took a liking for the local Timorese.For more than 500 years the whitest Timorese wanted to be top dog.
Now the "whitese" have joined their Marxist brothers from Africa and decided to lay claim to half the Timor Sea's future wealth and it will not be long to wait too see the lucky Timorese lining up at the gaming tables of Monte Carlo,just as their African cousins have benn doing for the last two decades.
It is in the interest of world stability that Australia take the lions share of the Timor Sea's wealth and continues with humanitarian
aid to the TRUE Timorese,the rural poor.
If Australian troops do as they did in Timor in 1997,intimidating Timorese youths, we can expect a backlash similar to the Bali bombings,and a strong feeling of Anti Australianism in the region.
It was the newly elected East Timorese government that wanted the national language Portugese,so let the Portugese pay all costs of stopping the anachy.
The Marxist Australian Democrats are jumping up and down as usual,don't listen to them.