International News

Movers’ a go-go Maj Peta Langbehn and Wg-Cmdr Peter Chance discuss movements for the draw down of UN forces in East Timor.Photo by Pte John Wellfare, Army newspaper From Pte John Wellfare in East Timor MOVEMENTS staff serving in East Timor had been among the busiest in the contingent as they coordinated the draw down of all UN forces throughout June. Chief movements control officer Maj Peta Langbehn said fitting a limited number of vehicles and aircraft into a large-scale withdrawal program and allowing for unpredictable weather had been a significant challenge for movements staff in East Timor. “We can’t lose soldiers or vehicles,” she said. “We have to know exactly who we have in country, when they leave and what they leave with. “We have cargo manifests, we have personnel manifests. People are checked out of their barracks, they’re checked onto the air ops helicopters, they’re checked off the helicopters at the international airport and they’re checked onto the plane that takes them to their home country. “You have to be very logical and controlled. You have to have manifests and controls and check controls everywhere.” Dealing, not just with Australians, but with the broad range of nations’ personnel serving as part of the UN mission in East Timor, movements staff often have to apply more strict regulation than is expected by many of those deployed. “Some of the contingents ... aren’t aware of our requirements,” Maj Langbehn said. “There are different levels of standards – we always work to the highest level – we need to educate them sometimes on the reasons we do things, but I find all the contingents are very appreciative of our efforts. “[They] care for their safety and we’ve had no trouble working with the various contingents at all.” Working for Maj Langbehn throughout the draw down had been a series of desk officers in each national contingent, as well as staff coordinating specific in-country movements. Chief of air ops Wg-Cmdr Peter Chance said flight coordination was often hampered by East Timor’s adverse weather conditions. “This is a very wet dry season,” he said. “Where we were supposed to have good weather we’ve had a lot of thunder storms, a lot of rain and that creates havoc. “It becomes very busy first thing in the morning, which fortunately for us is our best weather. “[Air movements] have to be done early in the morning because the turbulence builds up by mid-afternoon and then they have all sorts of trouble getting through.” As the last elements of the previous UN mission withdrew by the end of June, most of the movements staff went with them. Maj Langbehn remains with a single staff member to coordinate movements for the more than 500 UN personnel left in East Timor.