Farewell to Timor-Leste
Three members of the ADF who were at the beginning of Interfet witnessed the end of the mission. Corporal Damian Shovell reports.

WGCDR Andrew Ormsby at the final UNMISET parade at Obrigado Barracks, Dili, May 19, 2005.

Photo by CPL Damian Shovell

SAYING goodbye to Timor-Leste was an emotional experience for all of the last 120 Australian peacekeepers to serve there, but for three servicemen the experience was made more poignant by the fact they were among the first, and now the last, ADF peacekeepers in the country.

Unknown to each other at the time, each arrived with Interfet on September 27, 1999, and witnessed the damage, destruction and fear first-hand from their employment across the three services.

More than five years later, they completed their tours with the UN Mission of Support in Timor-Leste (UNMISET) and considered what the ADF had achieved.

Major Karlo Terz, OC Force Extraction Team, deployed with Interfet with 10 Field Support Battalion’s reconnaissance group as a Warrant Officer Class 1, tasked to set up a ground and aviation fuel point at Comoro Airport. He remembered Dili burning.

“To see what we saw when we got in there – everything was alight – it wasn’t a nice place to be,” he said.

“I had [locally employed civilians] working for me and I could still see the fear in their eyes.”

He said being there for the end was a sentimental occasion, and one he felt privileged to be a part of.

“For me personally it is a great honour. These people are just lovely people [and] to see them now, they’re so confident.

“To see the shops that have opened and even the smiles on these people’s faces now, it’s just incredible. It feels sad that we’re leaving. I know that the Defence Cooperation Program will be here for years to come, but it’s still sad to say goodbye.”

Navy Lieutenant Andrew Hobbs arrived with Interfet Headquarters as a linguist, and recalled the joy he received from the Timorese people as he travelled through the country on some of the earliest reconnaissance missions into the heart of Timor-Leste.

“I distinctly remember driving into Same in a convoy and the Timorese lined the streets and cheered us in. It was something surreal, like out of an old World War II movie,” he said.

“I think you could be forgiven for driving around Dili today and not realising it had been destroyed to the extent that it had been.

“The people are confident, there are a lot of cars on the roads, and there’s a lot of commerce there.”

On leaving he had the same mixed emotions as many on the operation, but felt confident the job the ADF set out to do was completed.

“It’s now virtually a normal community and I think [as peacekeepers] it’s time for us to go, as the job of making this place calm and stable is, I believe, done.”

He said comparing Timor-Leste today to what he saw in 1999 showed the obvious success of the mission.

“There was barely a habitable building left in Dili. There was no electricity, toilets or water.

“Almost every building in Dili had been destroyed or damaged in some way and the people were gone, there were very few people there.

“As you drove along the north coast to Baucau or to Batugade, you could go for mile after mile and not see any locals. Every village was deserted.

“There were no people, no livestock, no cars, the houses had all been burnt.

“By comparison today, one of the dangers on the road is the people and the animals and the cars of the thriving communities.”

Wing Commander Andrew Ormsby, Aero-Medical Evacuation Liaison Officer for UNMISET, arrived with Interfet to coordinate medical evacuations in and out of the country during the mission.

He said he remembered arriving at Dili harbour on HMAS Jervis Bay to see hundreds of Australian troops on the ground patrolling among the burning buildings and devastation, and also considered the contrast with life there today.

“People are getting on with their lives. The whole infrastructure of the place has come on in leaps and bounds,” he said.

“Dili is a far more thriving town now, there’s a lot more productive activity and business.

“It’s still a country in its infancy, but a lot has improved in terms of infrastructure.”

The recurring message is the same. Timor-Leste is no longer a country in need of armed peacekeepers. It is a country emerging on its own.

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