The era of humanitarian intervention

As I began writing this book during the early days of September 1999, hundreds of thousands of Australians were taking to the streets, marching under banners proclaiming ‘Indonesia out, peacekeepers in’. These protesters were calling for the introduction of an international peace-keeping force into East Timor to protect the East Timorese from the Indonesian army-backed militia who were rampaging through Dili and the countryside – killing, wounding, raping and implementing a scorched-earth policy. These acts of destruction and violence were a response to the announcement on 4 September that an overwhelming majority of East Timorese people had voted for independence from Indonesia in a United Nations (UN) sponsored referendum held on 30 August. The Australian Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, was to call the swell of community protests the strangest and most inspiring event he had witnessed in Australian political life.

The voices of the protestors joined with the chorus pleading for an armed UN intervention in East Timor. Timorese leaders such as Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta were calling for such action. Australian international lawyers were speaking on the radio and television, arguing that such intervention could be legally justified – as a measure for restoring international peace and security if authorised by a UN Security Council resolution, or as an act of humanitarian intervention by a ‘coalition of the willing’ if no such resolution was forthcoming.