Wayne Sievers - Police Work in East Timor

Police Work in East Timor

By the late 1990s an economic crisis had contributed to the collapse of the corrupt Suharto government in Indonesia. It was replaced with the government of President Jusuf Habibie, whose political position was weak and whose character was often seen as erratic. In 1998 former Australian Prime Minister John Howard looked to establish a reputation for himself as a regional statesman, and he attempted to solve the issue of the Indonesia’s brutal 24-year military occupation of East Timor. A third of the population had died as a result of genocidal campaigns by the Indonesian military in this territory just off Australia’s northern coast. Habibie accepted Howard’s proposal for an independence referendum in East Timor, apparently in the mistaken belief that the people of East Timor would vote to remain a part of Indonesia. The Indonesian military, whose generals had extensive business interests and land holdings in East Timor, immediately set about derailing the ballot. Drugs and cash were used to recruit members for armed civilian militias to operate under the control of the Indonesian military. Their purpose would be to attack pro-independence supporters and later the United Nations in East Timor – the UN would later conduct the independence ballot.

In a concession that would have profound and tragic consequences, Australia agreed to an Indonesian military demand that the Indonesian military provide security for the vote and not foreign military forces. Only unarmed United Nations Civilian Police, the largest contingent of whom came from Australia, would accompany the United Nations electoral officials. Wayne Sievers volunteered for this mission and arrived in East Timor as a team leader in June 1999. Unknown to him and the other UN police volunteers were the intelligence reports already being received by the Australian Government suggesting they could become targets of the military-controlled and murderous militias.

After arriving in East Timor, Sievers – an intelligence officer by background – began to receive Indonesian Army and militia documents clearly detailing the Indonesian military's plan to kill independence supporters and destroy the territory in the event of a vote for independence. He passed these on to the United Nations and to the Australian Government, but became deeply concerned when it was apparent these warnings were being ignored. The former Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, was confronted by the media with allegations that the Indonesian military were actually organising the violence rather than protecting the people of East Timor and the UN peacekeepers. He denied this, claiming instead that only a few "rogue elements" in the military were involved. These claims worried those on the ground in East Timor, including Wayne Sievers. The Australian Government had by then received information from its own sources and was well aware that the violence was being orchestrated from the highest levels of the Indonesian military. There were suggestions that Mr Downer's claims were part of a cover up to avoid public scrutiny of a policy failure. It ultimately saw the death and destruction on an immense scale as the Indonesian military double-crossed Australia.

East Timor voted by nearly 80% in favour of independence from Indonesia in the United Nations-sponsored ballot in August 1999. When the results of the ballot were announced in early September, the Indonesian military and their militia supporters immediately unleashed a campaign of violence and destruction that would result in the reported deaths of thousands. About a third of the population were forced at gunpoint into Indonesian West Timor and the United Nations presence contracted to the UN compound in Dili. A siege lasting several weeks began, with several thousand East Timorese sheltering in the compound with the UN. Food, water and sewage were cut off and disease outbreaks threatened.

Wayne Sievers was present during the siege and helped to care for the refugees. He also assisted in running convoys of evacuees through the city to the airport. These convoys came under fire as they made their way through the burning city. On another occasion he intervened at Dili Airport to stop a senior Indonesian police officer from handing over 30 East Timorese refugees from Baucau to local militia to be killed. He arranged for diplomatic assistance after they were refused permission to board an aircraft for Australia and escorted them to the relative safety of the UN compound in Dili. It is believed that several thousand East Timorese were killed in the weeks following the independence ballot. The violence that ultimately resulted in the United Nations leaving the territory, followed by several weeks of unrestrained massacres that were ended after the Indonesians withdrew and the Australian-led INTERFET (United Nations International Force in East Timor) arrived to restore order.

Wayne Sievers was evacuated from the UN compound to Darwin, Australia, on 11 September 1999, sick with dengue fever. He had also contracted malaria twice in the previous six weeks. After discharge from hospital he became the Secretary of the Australian Federal Police Association's ACT Division in Canberra. From this platform he campaigned strongly on industrial issues affecting police including peacekeeping veterans, community safety and the failure of the Australia's to heed warning on the coming violence in East Timor. He appeared on national media in this role, and soon became the subject of an allegedly politically motivated campaign to discredit him and force him from the Australian Federal Police.