InterFET

How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing? I'm
curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian troops
reach the world press?

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> > Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian

There was a brief report on radio 4.

> Jeremy Sadler wrote:

> How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing?
I'm
> curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

We had loads of news until the troops went in - since then, apart from
some coverage of the British troops, we've heard little. This is I suspect
more a function of there being plenty of news closer to home (Paddington rail
crash plus it's political party conference season as well) rather than a
decision not to cover East Timor.

> Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian

It appeared on the inner 'world news' pages of the broadsheets but you had to
look hard to find it. Nothing on TV or radio that I caught.

> At 10:37 PM +1000 10/13/99, Jeremy Sadler wrote:
I'm
> curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

Yeah, I've just been following sound bites on CNN, but the Aussies did make
the news over here. I'll note that Pakistan got more coverage yesterday than
Timor has for the last week (then again, I've got a friend visiting India so
maybe its just an attention thing). SO no, its not being ignored.

FWIW, the NavWarGames list at onelist.com has been discussing East Timor as a
Harpoon scenario. Interested types may want to check that out.

> Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian

In the common press, almost nil. I'm a big fan of the Economist, which has
covered it fairly well.

> How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing?
I'm
> curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

I caught on CNN (amazingly enough, considering how much tv I see anymore) the
other morning here (sunday morning?) a 5 minute piece on the first skirmish
between the Aussies and the Indos. They mostly just said that the Aussies were
on their (the Aussie) side of the border by X hundred meters and someone on
the the Indos side opened fire on the Aussies, and how after the skirmish was
concluded the Aussie and Indo commanders got together and agreed that the
Aussies were on their (the Aussie) side of the border.

Mk

> Jeremy Sadler wrote:

> How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing?
I'm
> curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

In the US it's being reported matter of factly. We hear at least a little
something most every day on the news. I would love to see a bit more footage
though, particularly of the uniforms and equipment. (Has InterFET deployed
armor yet? Gunships?) It's not that big a deal over here since we ourselves
are deployed all over the world in a bunch of places so people kind of get
used to it.

Of course where I live there are a lot of pork-chops (portuguese) so
East Timor is a big deal, heck they wanted the UN to invade the place
regardless of what Indonesia says since as you know ET was a Portuguese colony
until 1975,(plus I believe there are some Portuguese troops on IntertFET.

> Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian

Yeah we hear about that on the news over here. Good luck and good job. Glad to
see someone else taking charge for once. Looks like the Aussie troops will see
a little bit more action than usual which translates to some valuable
experience for the infantry. If you get any pertinent details of tactical
operations let us know.

> How much news about East Timor are people in the US, UK et al seeing?
I'm
> curious to see how this is viewed in other parts of the globe.

up here in the great wet north (Canada - no snow yet, but raining
lots...)
we're getting coverage, but it has died down a lot. when interfet first went
in, there was lots of coverage of the Australian forces, etc... but not as
much now. There was a piece in the international news section of the paper
today that mentioned the skirmish on the weekend, but I didn't hear about it
on the weekend (though I wasn't paying close enough attention)

we're sending forces down, and when the next group gets there I'm sure
there'll be more coverage. there was plenty when our airforce contingent (a
couple of Hercs) tried to get there, but the coverage was embarrasing for the
military as both aircraft had mechanical problems enroute, and one had to turn
back three times.... (and this was just as the NATO defense ministers were
having a conference here in Toronto....). We have the honour of having the
world's most overworked force of Hercules transport aircraft here in Canada.
Ours fly on average about twice as many hours as other fleets world wide, and
we have the example flying with the greatest total number of flying hours
(over 40 thousand). Lockeed uses the Canadian fleet as a test group for aging
and stress issues, and uses the data to advise other users world wide....

Canada is sending a couple hundred (250 I think) infantry to join the
operation soon, and I'm sure there'll be more coverage here when they arrive.
It should be interesting to see what happens when they arrive.
The last time that I know of that the Australian/New Zealand troops and
the
Royal 22nd Regiment of Canada (actually, that's Le Vingt-Deuxieme
Regiment
Royale du Canada, otherwise known as the "Van-doos") were operating
together was in the Commonwealth Brigade during the Korean war. By all
reports, the French Canadian lumberjacks in the Van-Doos and the Maori
warriors in the ANZAC forces took an immediate dislike to each other, and
spent more time trying to kill each other in REALLY violent bar fights than
they did trying to fight the North Vietnamese...   There was a funny
account of this in Michael Caine's (the actor) autobiography (he was in the
British army in Korea at the time)......    Are any New Zealand infantry
serving in INTERFET?

> Are any New Zealand infantry serving in INTERFET?

Yes, they've arrived, did a Haka, then went on patrol. A very condensed
summary from NZ TV news.

> Are any New Zealand infantry serving in INTERFET?

hahahahahahahahaha!

OK, Armour currently is restricted to the Lav 25 APCs and Recon vehicles you
see. Early on there was a photo of a leopard mine clearer. no gunships; just
Blackhawks.

The really interesting initial skirmish was the "ambush" of an Australian
vehicle/s by some militia. Perhaps it was just the press that called it
an
ambush as only two Aussies were wounded and their counter-ambush drill
was still effective enough to inflict two kills and force the remainder
(numbers unknown) to withdraw!

Owen G

> -----Original Message-----

> something most every day on the news. I would love to see a bit more

I'm working on putting still pictures up on USG2WS.

In news reports I've seen both LAV-25s and M113s. I haven't seen tanks.
I have seen Blackhawks as transport.

> Did any news about the border skirmish between Aussie and Indonesian
Glad to
> see someone else taking charge for once. Looks like the Aussie troops

Very few details, unfortunately. There was an article in a paper here a few
days ago about the SAS, but naturally it was very vague - though it did
make
speculation/conclusions about what they were doing. The action on the
border against the Indonesian troops got headline coverage here, and as there
was a news crew with the unit there was actual video.

I apologise if anyone feels this is going off-topic, but as a player of
SG2 and with the amount of interest on this list of all things military, I
thought it relevant.
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