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Prayers answered
By Cpl Corinne Boer
Edition 1174, September 6, 2007 |
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Rescued: Chaplain Capt Charles Vesely and some of the soldiers who helped rescue Sister Joan Westblade and her colleagues from an unstable security situation in the eastern districts of Timor-Leste.
Photo by LS Kade Rogers |
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AN Australian nun and seven Timorese colleagues had their prayers answered when a section of Australian soldiers, guided by a padre, extracted them from a volatile situation near Baucau on August 11.
Sister Joan Westblade was in Baucau for a five-day nutrition workshop when the security situation deteriorated. She took refuge in a UN compound with her Timorese colleagues and phoned 1RAR chaplain Charles Vesely.
“I was alerted that the situation in Baucau was becoming quite difficult for them. We then set about thinking of ways to ensure their safety and to get them out of Baucau and back to Dili,” Chap Vesely said.
“In the end we worked out a plan which involved three vehicles and a section of recon soldiers from recon platoon, and drove to Baucau. By that stage the sister and her colleagues were taking refuge in the UN compound and we transported them from Baucau to safety.”
There was one moment during the journey that the padre thought they might run into problems.
“Just on the other side of Baucau, on the way back to Dili, there was some sort of rally going on. There were quite a lot people and we weren’t sure what to expect, but as we approached we bunched up our vehicles and just kept going,” Chap Vesely said.
Sister Westblade said the response by the Australian soldiers was fantastic and it was a great relief when they arrived.
“There was no way for us to get out. We didn’t have a car and the drivers in Dili were too afraid to go to Baucau. We were in the UN compound and we were all a bit edgy waiting for the soldiers to arrive,” she said.
“When they arrived my Timorese colleagues turned to me and said ‘we didn’t know we had so many friends’. I turned to them and said ‘we have a whole army of them’.”
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