5Mb 128 kbps 5 minutes 18 seconds
Maybe it's the armed forces culture, and maybe it's just political hypocrisy, when Australian government officials deny (as they have done in the past) that Australian peacekeeping forces in Timor Leste are playing a political role (when they are not playing football with the kids - good image, that ... ).
In the last election campaign in Timor Leste Australian troops ripped down Fretilin flags ('accidentally' they said later) and at one point tried to interrupt a cavalcade of the (then) Fretilin Prime Minister's entourage, threatening his security guards at gunpoint.
Australian troops are immune from prosecution under the 'peacekeeping' agreement. The Australian government is allowed 'deniability' of what Australian troops 'do'. But when an Australian military jeep ran down and killed a Timorese pedestrian woman responsibility, and therefore compensation to the family of that woman has been evaded to a degree that resembles denial.
The Australian military presence in Timor Leste has always been hidden behind the Australian government 'deniability' Especially behind that insidious little clause that disallows local prosecution of travesties of justice committed by 'peacekeeping' forces.
This interview is important, Let us all hear, and listen. How responsible are Australian troops in Timor Leste to official government policy?
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