Summary:
Australia contributed significantly to international conflicts during the twentieth century. The following overview covers two prime examples of the Australian contribution, the peacekeeping missions in both Papua New Guinea (Bougainville) and East Timor.
Australia has contributed significantly to international conflicts in the 20th century. A prime example of this contribution is highlighted in the peacekeeping missions in both Papua New Guinea (Bougainville) and East Timor.
AUSTRALIA AND BOUGAINVILLE
Hostilities in Bougainville, New Guinea began in the mid-late twentieth century, around the issue of Bougainville's independence.
Bougainville is an island located east of Papua New Guinea's main landmass, however wasn't particularly culturally tied to the mainland. They had developed a culture more similar to that of the neighbouring Solomon Island and referred to the mainlanders as "red skins." After a history of interaction with mainly Britain and Germany, Bougainville became part of the Australian colony of New Guinea after World War One.
Papua New Guinea became independent of Australia in 1975, and Bougainville stated that it too, would like to become independent - of New Guinea. Both the Australian and PNG governments disallowed this movement.
In 1988, a Bouganvillean by the name of Francis Ona quit his work at Australian/British owned mines on the island and formed an association that seeked compensation for the impact of the mine. In the November of that year, a bomb was dropped on a mine site and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) was born.
The BRA enjoyed a brief success over the PNG government however the mainland soon established a blockade. Inside the island, factions began to form and anti-BRA guerrillas (called The Resistance) invited the PNG army to return to the island. Throughout the whole process human rights were ignored and thousands of civilians suffered.
Formal negotiations took place in July 1997 when the conflict decreased. A truce was signed in October 1997 and a ceasefire obtained. Another ceasefire was declared in January 1998 and in 2001 the Bougainville Peace Agreement was established.
The Peace Agreement declared autonomy, where Bougainville could choose its name and government structures in its own constitution, take on most powers and functions of a government, establish its own taxes and establish separate courts, public service, police and correctional facilities.
From 1988 to 1997 20,000 people died as a result of the civil unrest in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. The main reasons for this were war with the mainland (PNG) army and police, internal civil war, starvation, disease and childbirth fatalities.
The Defence Co-Operation Program (DCP) was an aid program initiated by the Australian government to equipped Papua New Guinea with military supplies including guns, ammunition, mortars, bombs, patrol boats, speed boats, helicopters and Nomad aircraft. In addition, Australia provided 2,000 Papua New Guinean soldiers (over half of their army) with military training. The Australian government spent over $8 million on the DCP in 2001; however it had many faults and probably should have been abandoned long before, one reason being that the government has no control over how this equipment is used in Bougainville. Another related reason is that as Australia sends so much money and equipment to PNG, it frees up finances for their government to spend on elongating the war. Papua New Guinea receives more Australian aid than any other country, totalling anywhere around $9 million per year.
The Truce Monitoring Group (TMG) was an assemblage of military and civilian personnel from the Pacific nations of Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, along with members of the Australian Defence Force, who provided logistic support. 150 Australians were involved in this group and were situated in four locations on the island of Bougainville.
The aim of the TMG was to make sure that peace was maintained between PNG and Bougainville after the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement. The group operated from 1997 until January 31, 1998, after a meeting of PNG government and Bougainville leaders. It was then replaced by another group, the Peace Monitoring Group. The Cairns commitment reaffirmed the details of the truce between PNG and Bougainville and said that all States would accept the TMG, respect them, co-operate them and to do all in their power to prevent them from attack or harassment.
The TMG's successor, the Peace Monitoring Group, also involved the same countries that made up the TMG. The aim of both groups was to be neutral and to be a mix of military personnel to control resistance and monitor the ceasefire agreement, and civilians to help rebuild the Bougainville way of life. The group promoted confidence in the government through interaction with local people, informing them of peace agreements and encouraging the locals to build a peaceful community. The PMG monitored the island from 1998 until 2003, on request of the PNG government.
The Peace Consultative Committee was set up by the PNG government to make sure that peace was maintained by assessing and reviewing reports from the PMG. The Committee had no hand however in commanding the TMG.
There was only one Australian fatality during the peace process in Bougainville, the death of Lance Corporal Shawn Lewis, who died of reasons unrelated to the mission.
Through the TMG and PMG, Australians were effective in rebuilding Bougainville and helping them establish a form of independence. The island gained control of their public service, courts, police, correctional institutions, taxation and foreign aid initiatives.
AUSTRALIA AND EAST TIMOR
The country of Timor was colonised by the Portuguese in the mid 16th century, and declared independent in November 1975. It was taken by Indonesian troops and incorporated into Indonesia in July 1976, as the province of East Timor. A campaign of pacification followed in which 100,000-250,000 people lost their lives.
A United Nations referendum in August 1999 found that an overwhelming amount of East Timorese wished to be independent from Indonesia, however a number didn't. Anti-independence Timorese rebels, supported and organised by the Indonesian military, started a large scale attack on the country. The rebels killed approximately 1,300 Timorese and 300,000 people escaped as refugees to West Timor. Most of East Timor's infrastructure, including housing, irrigation, water supply systems and schools were wiped out and nearly 100% of the country's electrical grid demolished.
After the arrival of the peacekeeping troops of the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) in 1999, the violence ended and East Timor was declared a free state on May 20, 2002.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1264, issued on Wednesday 15 September 1999, 'authorises the States participating in the multinational force to take all necessary measures' to restore security in East Timor. Australia agreed to lead INTERFET, the multinational peacekeeping force for East Timor.
Resolution 1264 was the result of a unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council and stated that a multinational peacekeeping force should be established and deployed to East Timor to restore peace and security, to protect and support UNAMET (UN Mission in East Timor) in carrying out its tasks and to facilitate humanitarian assistance operations. The aim of INTERFET was not to transfer sovereignty to the East Timorese, as that was a decision to be made between the UN, Portugal and Indonesia. INTERFET was to be replaced with a UN based peacekeeping force after it had completed its task.
Whilst in East Timor, the INTERFET operation aimed to keep opposing sides separate, identify possession and location of arms, disarm combatants, monitor borders to stop the movement of arms and rebellious forces, monitor cease-fire agreements and weapons disposal operations and initiate a major human relief effort.
Information obtained from sources varied on the reasons for violence in East Timor and why INTERFET interfered. It is most widely accepted that the violence was because of Indonesian and Timorese rebels fighting against independence, and that INTERFET was commissioned to East Timor to control this fighting. Some sources however say that the reason they went was to supervise the transition of Indonesian rule to private rule. The two are easily connected, but the main argument is that the INTERFET occupation of the country was to control these rebels and to restore peace, and that is the theory that has been adopted for this essay after reading information on the up to date and official CIA website.
INTERFET comprised of nations such as Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, Thailand, The Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Fiji, Italy, Japan, Norway, Finland, Pakistan, Sweden, Bangladesh and Portugal. These countries provided equipment, financial support, personnel or sent a combined effort of all three.
Australia contributed a number of aircrafts including Blackhawk helicopters, ships including the HMAS Tobruk, HMAS Darwin, HMAS Adelaide and the HMAS Success, 111 army vehicles and 4,500 troops.
Australia had significant ties to East Timor, as they fought together against the Japanese in World War Two, and Australian relations with Indonesia had iced over after five Australian journalists were killed during the Indonesian take over of East Timor. Australia supplies approximately $8 million a year to East Timor, which is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific. The Australian commander in East Timor explained, simply, the reason why Australia was so concerned with the conflict in the country. "We looked over our front fence and we saw, in our neighbour's home, his house on fire and a big bully punching the neighbour in the nose. We hopped the fence. That is very Australian. There was an underdog needing help and the people said let's help. So it was fundamental to ourselves and our self-image as Australians."
The conflicts in Papua New Guinea and East Timor are examples of Australia's willingness to help out other countries and maintain peace whenever possible. As these two studies are both peacekeeping missions, there was no significant impact on Australian society except for the shock at some of the humanitarian abuses from the Bougainville rebels and the East Timor/Indonesian rebels.
From the Bougainville mission, only one Australian died, and it was in a scuba diving accident, where he drowned. In East Timor, INTERFET recorded no Australian or New Zealand deaths.
The participation of Australian troops in INTERFET was highly commendable however the lengthy period of time between the highlighting of the atrocities in East Timor and the beginning of action from any foreign unit is criticisable. As a close neighbour of East Timor, Australia could have readily appealed to the UN and deployed troops into the country as soon as the crisis was established, rather than waiting for a joint organisation.
It is through these examples that Australia has shown vigour in protecting its weaker neighbours and keeping the peace, therefore contributing to international conflicts in a positive way.
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