Traffic skills certain to prove useful in Timor

By PHILIP ENGLISH

In "civvy street" Bruce Conaghan is a Manukau City Council traffic engineer helping to solve the Auckland region's transport chaos.

As a Territorial Force soldier at present on duty in Suai, East Timor, he still has to work out what side of the road locals drive on.

It is not surprising. Suai roads are mainly narrow and more like tracks.

And there is no local civil administration to maintain them.

The few motor vehicles other than motorbikes and cycles to use the roads belong to the United Nations and aid agencies or are New Zealand Defence Force vehicles carrying out United Nations duties.

Lance-Corporal Conaghan is in East Timor as an intelligence operator for the Third New Zealand Battalion Group.

But his background in traffic engineering means he has a second role to play when called upon - as battalion transport consultant.

While his primary role for the battalion is gathering and examining information to help the troops' peacekeeping efforts around Suai, he is expecting some transport work during the wet season.

His traffic movement skills will be to the fore with the likelihood of roads being washed out or made impassable.

He is happy that his work in civvy street can be used by the Army thanks to his Territorial Force membership.

While Lance-Corporal Conaghan is familiar with Auckland's increasing transport woes, he is more concerned with how the Timorese roads will stand up under greater traffic.

In Suai, the talk is about what will happen when the locals become more mobile as the country moves from the destruction and killing of two years ago to hoped-for recovery.

"As people start getting up and running they will be looking at more motorcycles on the roads."

He said more traffic on Suai's roads would be one more challenge for the country to get to grips with as it made its way in the world.

Herald Online feature: Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor