Editorial: Softly, softly approach in Timor

Our Government took a day or so longer than Australia's to answer East Timor's call for military assistance. This was too long for some critics. Not us. The Government was right to take every precaution before entering another country's domestic dispute. As we saw in the Solomons recently, the suppression of violence should be accompanied by attention to the cause. To intervene simply on the side of established power can leave us on the wrong side of another nation's progress.

In East Timor, of course, we have been on the wrong side before. New Zealand, like Australia and the West generally, tacitly supported the Indonesian acquisition of the territory after Portugal lost interest in its colony. Though Indonesia developed the territory better than the Portuguese had done, it could not suppress a Timorese independence movement and several bloody incidents occurred before the Timorese were able to express their will at a referendum. The result sparked reprisals by Indonesian-backed militias and it took an Australian-led intervention to ensure independence five years ago.

Through it all, the Timorese were represented to us as a people united in identity and aspirations and their leaders were lionised by sympathisers in this country and others. Now we have to wonder. The new state has suffered an uprising by 600 former soldiers, sacked when they deserted their barracks claiming they had been passed over for promotion because of their ethnicity. Their protests have developed in exchanges of fire with the Army and police. The shooting has taken around 20 lives, including nine police. Half the population of the capital, Dili, is reported to have fled the city, and many thousands from the countryside are said to have sought refuge within it. The civilian population is probably as confused as the picture we are receiving.

Whatever is happening, the unrest has erupted just as the United Nations was preparing to end its mission, having been there since the independence referendum. East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao, once a hero of its independence struggle, has appealed for the UN to stay until a sense of security is restored. In its decision to send troops the New Zealand Government was careful to invoke the UN Security Council's "full understanding of the request by the Timor Leste Government for assistance".

That does not sound like a statement of total confidence in the Government whose authority our soldiers will help to enforce. The fact that President Gusmao has taken personal control of the country's security forces suggests he is concerned about the calibre of the Government, too. We need urgently to know much more about the issue that has prompted the rebellion within the Army. If ethnic discrimination lies behind it, we are venturing into sensitive territory.

Australia, for all its willingness to answer the call, did little more on the first day than send in commandos to secure Dili airport to ensure the safe evacuation of Australian Embassy staff and others. Our embassy staff seem less anxious to leave. By Friday, Australia had a frigate stationed in Dili's harbour and 1300 troops in readiness. New Zealand dispatched 42 Defence Force soldiers to Darwin with an RNZAF Hercules and support staff. Up to 200 soldiers were put on standby over the weekend if they were needed. Malaysian and Portuguese personnel are also involved in the military support.

There is no telling yet whether we are stepping into a passing storm or the first stage in the failure of a new state. The Government would do well to continue with caution.