East Timor: The "UN Greatest Success Story" or another flop?

[Obi Wan Asterix]

I want to see people's opinions.

Australia's peackeepers have been accused of being completely ineffective.. sounds familiar? Or is it just that the US is better at marketing its peackeeping?

Will East Timor turn into the pacific Kosovo after a heavy bout of violence?

I am curious as to what people have to say.

[Niles Crane]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tim...956453104.html

Rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado said the crisis would not end until Prime Minster Alkatiri - whom the rebels accuse of discrimination - is ousted.

I doubt it has much to do with how effective the Australian army is.

[danzig]

Yep peacekeeping is pointless whether its American, Australian etc when isnt wanted. Only so much can do without directly becoming involved in the internal affairs of the country and dictating terms which of course makes you the enemy then. It is a thankless job too, you can never do enough but people will be quick to be critical of every 'failure' you make or attack you when you actually DO try and do something. Peace keeping requires the country/terrority involved to want peace.

[Turnus]

I don't think that there is any chance at all that Australia will give up on East Timor (even just for the sake of appearing powerful in the region). Eventually the troops will work all of this out, and a similar government to the last one will be set up. Who knows what the results of this will be, though.

[militiaman]

I bit too early to tell IMO. Most of the troops have not even been there for a week, and since they have arrived they've at least stopped the crisis from escalating.

I really doubt this will be anywhere near the scale of Kosovo. While I don't think the situation is under control yet I'm assuming things will be able to subside. From the sounds of it the Australian troops are pretty stretched at the moment, all the news reports saying that as soon as they leave a place something happens, and they have to leave to go and control other areas.

I will post more later if other people give their oppinions.

[MoROmeTe]

I first heard of East Timor a few months back while reading up on wiki of the numerous little states I never knew existed... And I found its history very interesting. And I found the fact that there have been no violence post-independence very curious... Well, what we see now is the normal power struggle in a small, limited resourse and backward country which does not have institutions and formalities implemented so that the power struggle is bloodless and democratic. I suspect the incident invoving the stricke and firing of Army personell to be just a cassus belli.

The UN and Australia in special has done a lot for East Timor. And now the military deployment has been quick and actually succesfull. The stumbling block will be the creation of a way of settling power disputes without bloodshed...

[Red Harvest]

This isn't a peacekeeping issue from what I've seen, rather it is a dispute with the military and elected govt. New nations often risk coup d'etat from such events. Right now it is something where the peace keepers just try to keep a lid on things while the new nation tries to work things out.

In nations without an international presence, they tend to end up with a military junta after the first or second governmental crisis.