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Australia, N.Z. Send Troops to End East Timor Unrest (Update4) May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Australia accelerated its deployment of soldiers to East Timor and New Zealand sent troops, as nine East Timorese police officers died in the latest violence in the country's capital, Dili. About 1,800 Australian soldiers, C130 Hercules and helicopters will be in East Timor by late today, the Defense Department said in an e-mailed statement. New Zealand is sending a 757 aircraft, a Hercules C130 plane and 150 soldiers. Malaysia and Portugal are also providing service personnel. ``So rapid has been the deterioration in East Timor we thought we had better begin the process of getting the troops moving,'' Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``The terms of engagement have been sorted with the East Timor government.'' The unrest in East Timor began last month when former soldiers rioted over the dismissal of about 600 servicemen for desertion. East Timorese soldiers killed nine unarmed police officers and wounded 27 people yesterday in Dili, the United Nations said. Two UN officers were among those injured. East Timor, or Timor-Leste, a country of about 1 million people, voted for independence in a 1999 referendum after a 24- year occupation by Indonesia, which invaded the territory when it was a Portuguese colony in 1975. The country, which became independent in May 2002, lies about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Australia. Dili Security A unit of about 150 Australian soldiers arrived yesterday, securing Dili's airport. The Australian contingent will take over responsibility for security in Dili, Agence France-Presse cited East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta as saying today. ``The Australian troops will hold control over the city of Dili and will move to other districts as needed,'' Ramos-Horta said, according to AFP. Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson suggested Australia, which has 1,320 soldiers in and around Iraq, 540 service personnel in Afghanistan and 400 in the Solomon Islands, may increase the size of the force being deployed in East Timor. ``We will have a look at the situation in Dili,'' Nelson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``We still have significant capacity in our back pocket here in Australia.'' Australia, which leads a multinational peacekeeping force in the Solomon Islands, had to increase its contingent last month after rioting in the Pacific nation. Long Deployment Australian soldiers won't be in East Timor for the ``long term,'' Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the defense force chief, told reporters in Canberra at a briefing. ``I would want to see us try to solve the problems there fairly quickly and that we can create a stable environment,'' Houston said. ``What happens after that is a matter for the Timor-Leste government, after consultation with our government, our partners and probably the UN.'' In yesterday's incident, soldiers fired on policemen being escorted out of their headquarters in Dili, the UN said. Police officers agreed to surrender their weapons after UN officials and military advisers negotiated a cease-fire. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is visiting Thailand, appointed Ian Martin as a special envoy to East Timor to assess events in the country, the UN said yesterday. Martin was the UN envoy to East Timor in 1999. The Security Council late yesterday appealed to East Timor's government to ``take all necessary steps'' to prevent further conflict and stabilize the country. The panel adopted a statement welcoming commitments by Portugal, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia to send troops. ``East Timor remains a very fragile and very poor country and too often after a major peacekeeping investment we leave too early,'' Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping operations, said after briefing the Council. ``It is very important to stay the course. The UN has no more force in Timor, so it cannot play a military or police role in the maintenance of law and order.'' Guehenno said the events might require a ``revision'' of the UN mandate in East Timor.
    To contact the reporters on this story:
    Gemma Daley in Canberra at  gdaley@bloomberg.net;
    Tina Morrison in Wellington  tmorrison3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 26, 2006 01:49 EDT
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