this conflict to me underlines two important things.. 1. how even if all the population of one country has been converted to a particular religion yet the fighting goes on,among themselves.it only goes to say that if u try and manipulate and induce peole to change their religion it only seeds more violence.and once people are addicted to violence it becomes difficult to control later.
2. how the media especially of the west manipulates the news to suit thier intrest. we have seen this time and again in iraq afghanistan etc etc. in the days heading to war with iraq the american media has prepared ground by manipulating public opinion in favour of war and after the war is over and lakhs of people killed or maimed now they are blaming the government,i feel they are equally responsible as george bush is.

Timor appears to be a rudderless ship with an incompetent captain who has no control and would rather spend his time in the cabin.
Why does Australia have to be the sucker for all the failed states?
If these countries had any backbone they would not have idle young men looking for mischief.
There is energy there but that energy is being wasted in anarchy that is getting no one anywhere.

East Timor will be a failed state because it has very little means of exportable production to give those of employable age, somewhere to work and get a wage?

With gas and oil deposits so close, with Australia having almost grabbed them, what about us setting up a refinery there for them?

What about getting hep from Indonesia with a fish canning factory or suchlike?

Our PM seems so full of ideas lately, all his own apparently, with his use of his very personal I rather than a democratic we , yet he does not appear to cotton on that why the young ones are creating a disturbance in East Tmor, especially the 600 kicked out of the military, is they having nothing there to keep 'em busy, only fight one another.

You certainly won't get any medals for this one, Johnny, seeing that your military looks likes its going to be replaced by the UN. 'bout time, anyway, as well as in other places, especially Iraq, which is a mess of a dog's breakfast, if ever there was one.

Come on, Howard, for Christ's sake

Leigh said:

What a tragic and stupid affair the desire for a free East Timor has turned out to be.

.. and in doing so, you highlight a crucial aspect of any 'freedom' or independance movement.

WHO..... is driving the agenda..and why ?
HOW MUCH of the populace do they represent ?
WHAT will 'they' (those driving the agenda) do to those of different political/ethnic background once they obtain 'freedom'. ?

Clearly, even if Brushy's suggestions were taken up.. the bread on the table/ employment/jobs thing, the ethnic rivaly.. would still be there. They would just be attacking each other on full stomachs rather than empty ones.

They would still be suspicious of the way government aid is handed out, and whether it favored the ethnic/political group of such and such a minister.

In short. Ethnically diverse communities are time bombs.

Why ? simple. Human nature !

So, now donning my newly found "Anglo supremacist" :) garb...I stand outside the doors of Parliment house and cry out at the stupidity of an uncontrolled unselective immigration policy, a non descript education policy bereft of historical content suitable for nation building, and an economic policy answerable to who knows. (George Soros ?)

East Timor is an object lesson. It is also a 'prophet'.. "Thus will you be if you are not vigilant"

Do I hear a bleating "Multiculturalism" coming from over there on my left ? Yes..I do.. but its fading quickly.. a mere echo of an age no longer relevant to reality.

A typical piece of Jakarta lobby propaganda, replete with distortions and tendentious claptrap.

Morris would have had the Indons deport the Christian clergy in East Timor...a human rights violation even Suharto's butchers did not attempt.

The Dili massacre took place in 1991, as Morris says. Howard was not even in Govt then...what had this to do with his eventual backflip in the late nineties (except as evidence of how TNI could indulge itself in "a frenzy of killing", that is)?

The journos murdered in Balibo in 1975 were certainly incautious...Morris wd have it that therefore they in effect killed themselves. What rubbish.

The current situation E. Timor is certainly due to the failings of the Dili Govt, no argument. Does this in some way justify the proposition that the country shd have been left to Indonesian oppression and the occasional "frenzy of killing"?

Morris shd go back to Jakarta and resume editing "Indonesia Daily". No doubt that's where he wd feel most at home, among his murderous mates.

This an incredibly stupid article about a serious topic. There were never any refugee camps in West Timor presided over by militia? (I was in Kupang in June 2000 and I can tell you there were!) Christianity is an alien concept that has no part in Asia? (yes, Laskar Jihad and al-Qaeda would agree completely!)

Mr Morris, are you trying to compete with the Fretilin lackeys of the Australian Left for the propagandist of the year award? Indeed, the current crisis in East Timor is the fault of the incompetent Fretilin government of Alkatiri who is seen by many to rule for the sole benefit of a small group of Portuguese-speaking former exiles from Mozambique, but don't let's go to the other extreme and white-wash everything Indonesia did in Timor.

As always, the truth lies far from both the leftist fantasyland described in the article and the Jakarta Lobby's ravings. A pox on both your houses.