Kiwi soldiers may get long stay in Timor

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

political editor

New Zealand and Australian troops could be stationed in East Timor for at least two more years, according to the former commander of the Interfet peacekeeping force, Major-General Peter Cosgrove.

Now commander of Australia's land forces and based in Sydney, the general is on a short visit to New Zealand for consultations and to assess lessons from the Timor operation.

He said he was making an informed guess about the length of the Australian and New Zealand deployment, but it would take a long time for East Timor to build a satisfactory public administration, given that it had been completely "smashed."

But there was a tremendous urgency and impatience among the East Timorese leadership to achieve full independence, he said.

"That dynamic is at play here. Two years? That's a guess. In that time it would be necessary for there to be some guarantee of security so there is an environment in which that public administration can grow. There is a problem of leaving a half-baked administration."

Interfet was deployed to East Timor under General Cosgrove's command last September following the militia-inspired rampage of killing and destruction in the former Indonesia-controlled territory.

Interfet has now been replaced by a United Nations-led peacekeeping operation. New Zealand is rotating troops to the blue beret force and has more than 600 defence personnel in Timor. Most of them are in the Suai region near the West Timor border.

General Cosgrove noted recent border incursions were an attempt by militia to test the will of the new UN command. "I'd say 'don't be silly' ... it's a foolhardy and ultimately futile attempt to try out the new force."

The general was full of praise for the New Zealand troops, saying they were a "cornerstone" of the Interfet force.

He refused to be drawn on the scale of New Zealand's defence spending and the imminent cancellation on the lease of F-16 jet fighters.

"How New Zealand plays its strategic cards in the future is always going to be a matter for New Zealand. As a humble soldier, I'll always be looking across the Tasman."

He said one of the lessons of the Timor deployment was that a "coalition of the willing" was going to be faster out of the blocks in dealing with an international crisis than a UN-arranged force.

"It seems to be a fact of life."