| Subject: Aussie troops
strayed into W Timor Australian
Broadcasting Corporation PM News Tuesday, November 23, 1999 6:27
Aussie troops strayed into W Timor
COMPERE: Despite all the sabre rattling between Indonesia
and Australia over East Timor, the two countries' armies only had one armed contact and
that, it now turns out, was a result of Australian troops entering West Timor. The fatal
clash with Indonesian forces on October the 10th was the subject of dispute at the time
about maps, and where exactly the border lay.
A joint investigation by Australia and Indonesia, submitted
to the United Nations, says the Australian troops did stray onto Indonesian soil. But the
report also found an over-reaction by Indonesian troops contributed to the gun battle.
Both sides have already acted on one of the report's recommendations - to reach agreement
on the borders separating East and West Timor.
Rebecca Barrett reports.
REBECCA BARRETT: At the time of the fire fight on the 10th
of October, Interfet Commander Major General Peter Cosgrove was confident his troops were
East of the border.
PETER COSGROVE: This incident occurred in East Timor along
one of the Eastern edges of this elongated hamlet. There is no question that the place
we're at was well inside East Timor.
REBECCA BARRETT: The Interfet Patrol may well have been
inside East Timor when gunfire was exchanged last month but according to UN observers the
village of Motaying (phonetic) they were directed to patrol following reports of militia
activity was on the Western side of the border and, some time before the incident they
mistakenly entered West Timor, alarming the Indonesian border patrol.
But in an annex to a joint investigation document prepared
by Australia and Indonesia, UN observers say Interfet troops did not cross the border, as
they recognised it to be, and as it was indicated on their map. Australia was relying on a
1992 map based on Indonesian data. The Indonesians, on the other hand, were using a Dutch
map from 1946.
This dichotomy in maps, according to UN observers, was the
main cause of the incident because, "When the Interfet forces crossed the border on
the ground, the TNI troops were unduly alarmed and thought that Interfet was making an
incursion into West Timor and thus over-reacted."
The reports states that the contact that followed between
the two sides appears to have been initiated by Indonesian troops, an assertion Major
General Cosgrove has maintained all along.
PETER COSGROVE: We didn't shoot first. The soldiers were
patrolling along, as is their right - and indeed there's an expectation that they'll offer
that sort of security up to the border - always approaching the border with some
sensitivity as you saw in the video clip. When they got to the border it was, you know,
trying to negotiate. But to be fired on when you're a good sort of 600 to 800 metres
inside East Timor is just an act of villainy.
REBECCA BARRETT: The report also blames poor communications
for the incident. It notes that Interfet headquarters informed TNI authorities of its
patrol, but that wasn't passed on to Indonesian troops on the ground. As a result the
Indonesian border control had no idea Interfet troops were operating in the area.
The clash that followed lasted around 10 minutes, and left
one Indonesian police officer dead and another with serious injuries. The Foreign Affairs
Minister, Alexander Downer, now hopes there won't be a repeat of the incident.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: I think in the circumstances the
Australian troops behaved with restraint and it was regrettable that the incident
occurred. Different maps were used and there is an argument about which map was right and
which map is wrong, but I'm glad that there has been a report now produced and we hope
that problems on the border won't recur because the lessons of that particular incident
have been learnt.
REBECCA BARRETT: Yesterday all sides were turned to the
disputed village of Motaying, with US Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrook.
Interfet and the TNI agreed to work out better border arrangements. They've now decided to
both rely on the 1992 maps used by the Australian troops to try to avoid any future border
conflicts.
COMPERE: Rebecca Barrett reporting.
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