Kōrero: Peacekeeping

Whārangi 4. Bougainville and East Timor

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Bougainville

Peacekeeping operations came closer to home when New Zealand Defence Force troops were sent to the island of Bougainville in 1997. Between 1989 and 1997, conflict between secessionist groups and the Papua New Guinea government left thousands of people dead and tens of thousands homeless on Bougainville.

Peacekeeping the Pacific way

New Zealand’s peacekeeping in the Pacific was marked by its mix of Māori and Pākehā customs. Māori protocol was used in negotiations, Māori and Pacific Island troops played an important role in the missions, and the haka proved to be an important tool for peacekeepers on Bougainville.

New Zealand engaged in numerous peacemaking attempts. After a number of failures, the Burnham Truce agreement was signed in October 1997. This called for the deployment of a Truce Monitoring Group (TMG), and a 250-person New Zealand-led force was deployed to Bougainville from December 1997 until April 1998,. The TMG was made up of New Zealand soldiers, as well as Australian, Fijian and ni-Vanuatu civilian and military personnel. The force was unarmed and its task was to patrol, monitor the truce and build confidence in the peace process.

In 1998 the TMG was replaced by the Australian-led Peace Monitoring Group, which oversaw the collection and containment of weapons used in the fighting and a referendum on the future of the island.

East Timor

In September 1999 violence erupted in East Timor after an overwhelming majority of its people voted in favour of independence from Indonesia in a United Nations (UN) referendum. Pro-Indonesian militias wreaked havoc when the result became known, and more than a thousand people were killed.

The violence prompted an international outcry and the UN called for a multinational force to restore order and provide humanitarian assistance until a UN peacekeeping force could be organised. The resulting International Force East Timor (INTERFET) was led by Australia, with more than 5,000 Australian defence personnel involved. New Zealand was the second largest contributor, dispatching an infantry battalion, transport aircraft, helicopters and three navy ships. By October 1999 more than 1,100 New Zealanders were in East Timor, making it the country’s largest military deployment since the Korean War.

Killed in action

After initially being deployed to the capital, Dili, New Zealand forces were based at Suai and took responsibility for patrolling the dangerous southern part of the border with Indonesia. Patrols came into contact with pro-Indonesian militias a number of times and during one incident, in July 2000, a New Zealand soldier was shot and killed – New Zealand’s first combat fatality since the Vietnam War. In total, five New Zealand peacekeepers died in East Timor.

The final New Zealand Defence Force battalion was withdrawn in November 2002, although the situation in the country remained unstable. In 2006 Prime Minister Helen Clark sent troops and military aircraft back to East Timor after riots erupted in Dili. In 2011 the New Zealand Defence Force still had 79 troops in East Timor. These personnel were withdrawn in December 2012.

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārangi:

David Capie, 'Peacekeeping - Bougainville and East Timor', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/peacekeeping/page-4 (accessed 19 March 2024)

He kōrero nā David Capie, i tāngia i te 20 Jun 2012, updated 1 Jun 2015