The boys are back in town - East Timor 30/5/06

More troops are pouring into East Timor, so apart from the Ozzies, we now have Kiwi, Malaysian and Portuguese troops here and yet more journalists. The biggest story of yesterday was the Ozzy troops setting up a food station in the middle of Dili to hand out free rice. Given the normal abject poverty of East Timor, where many people go without rice in everyday life, no wonder they got 20,000 people queuing for free food. We watched the BBC World News coverage of the widespread violence throughout Dili. According to the reporter, no place was free of violence or safe in the whole of the city, and the food queue was a mass riot. Ann and I looked at each other, and then around the restaurant we had just walked to, had we missed something and walked there with our eyes shut? What amazed us was that the BBC led with a story on East Timor when the absolute tragedy of the Indonesian earthquake should have warranted priority. The report in The Times was the most sensationalist article I've read so far, it’s infuriating, because now I can see how friends and relatives can be completely misled about the safety of their loved ones by watching and reading this coverage.

I'm not denying that there is a very real problem here, but its not army versus police, its gangs of boys looting and torching who have no problem at all with the Malai (westerners) here. Shots are being fired but mostly in the air for bravado, stones are being throw and cars being torched. In fact, Wayne does not like going into non troubled areas for fear of inciting the scroates to play up to the camera. The difference is with him, he lives here. The death toll is reported at 11 people at the moment, 11 too many, but a small number if you compare it to other incidents like this around the world. Only this morning Wayne got the news that a very good friend of his was killed in Iraq.

Restaurants are bravely soldiering on with very limited menus. Everything is served with rice as potatoes and vegetables are in very scarce supply. Flip used to own the Dili Club on the seafront until it was commandeered by the government to build the Chinese Embassy. So he reopened near an area called Komoro, which has seen much of the fighting. The Dili Club is famous for its quiz nights and pizza. Not that the pizza is the best in town, but he’s the only one that delivers. Having been closed for most of the week, he opened for 2 hours and took $500 in pizza delivery orders, that’s a hell of a lot of pizza.

Ann went to pay her internet bill, the office of which was swarming with press trying to feed their stories. The owner was sitting on his balcony with a pair of binoculars, Ann thought he may be watching the battleships, but no, he was watching a whale in the bay spurting water from its blowhole. Surprisingly enough we haven’t had mass cancellations of tourists for later in the year, I guess divers are made of sterner stuff. I saw the same thing in Egypt after the Sharm bomb, the dive industry wasn’t affected as badly as I thought it would be.

We have a sense of Déjà Vu every evening when we venture two doors down to the Esplanada. Its getting very boring, but you have to get out of the house. The same faces every night, the press and the Embassy staff. According to the Embassy, half the Brits are still here, a hardy bunch. The Australian troops have issued two numbers for people to call if they see trouble in their area; the problem is getting this information to the local people. Many are fleeing their homes with their possessions because they don’t feel safe, but have no idea where to go. Whereas the troops are now encouraging people to return home so normality can be restored. We were watching a beautiful sunset when this double mattress walked past, you could hardly see the guy behind it. One of the press was running around the street taking photographs of a lady heavily laden with her possessions on her head. He then stopped to get a different shot and the lady had to struggle into the road to walk round him. I ripped him off a strip for that.

The government have been in meetings all day, and everyone is awaiting the outcome. There is not a simple solution but hopefully there will be one that sees peace restored in this beautiful country very soon. And I can get back to diving some of the best reefs in the world.

Sod the limes! Peace will do – East Timor 29/5/06

In times of civil unrest, refugees, water shortages and burnt out houses, it really pisses you off when someone moans that they are really fed up with the situation because they can’t buy any petrol! To put some perspective on this, Wayne and the TV crew saved a 12 year old boy from being beheaded by a rival gang yesterday, so this whinging didn’t go down too well, obviously.

It’s reported that 50,000 refugees are in 35 camps around the city of Dili. Talking to a representative of World Aid last night, their problem is that the Timorese drivers are too scared to go to the camps so food is not being delivered. I've offered voluntary services to both World Aid and IMO (The International Organisation for Migration), but so far they haven’t taken me up on it. What they really need drivers that know the backstreets of Dili like the back of their hand.

We had our first glimpse of the Australian troops today, an armoured vehicle hurtling past the house, god it was noisy. One of the British Embassy staff agreed last night we are probably in the safest area of Dili. If trouble starts in Embassy Alley then it’s definitely time to leave the country.

Over 1000 troops have been deployed to East Timor. The Australian troops are focussing on disarming the rebels. One of the journalists had a great shot of a pile machetes, swords, arrows and axes, on top of which was a nice pair of hairdressers scissors with pink plastic handles. It reminds me of airport checks for nail clippers.

To top it all we had a phone call from one of our regular divers, he was sitting with a bloke that was stuck here for 10 days (probably on a visa run), who wanted to know if he could get some diving in while he was here. Well if the safety situation and the weather situation calm down in the next few days, then bring it on! This slightly unrealistic request did make us smile.

Wot no gin! East Timor 28th May 2006

We have now run out of gin, we had to drink it with lemon as we couldn’t get any limes, not quite the same. Dili is heaving with press; we even have a cameraman sleeping in my classroom tonight as all the hotels are full. The hotels are also rapidly running out of beer, food and cigarettes as the container ships bringing supplies from Australia cannot get in. There is also a shortage of petrol for the same reason, so even if the supermarkets were open, which they are not, you can’t get there. And as for paying for supplies, the banks are closed with no money in the ATM’s so cash is being brought in by the next plane load of journalists.

Flights are still coming in from Darwin but the Merpati flight from Bali has stopped. Bang goes the evacuation to an exotic location. The UN have upgraded to level 3 security alert so all non essential personnel have been evacuated. Jurgen begrudgingly text me this morning as he didn’t want to leave, saying he was on a flight to Darwin did I need anything? Yes, gin and limes!

Thousands of Timorese are fleeing the city, taxis hare past full to the brim with people sitting in the open boot, however, the Australian troops have gone some way to quell the panic. Apparently the churches are full of refugees. Whereas before the Dili residents fled to the mountains, this time that’s where most of the trouble is, so the inner city churches are packed.

In times like this it is enlightening to see the fish and chicken vendors setting up their barbeques on the beach. Some entrepreneurs have put the price of phone cards up to $15 for a $10 card and occasionally you get an opportunist cigarette seller going door to door. The British Embassy advised us to stay indoors but we ran into both the Ambassador and the 2nd in command at the Esplanada last night. Well everyone has to eat!

The fighting is hooligans, they have no axe to grind with westerners, but as a precaution Wayne and the crew drive around with their arms out of the car so the colour of their skin can be seen. In the midst of the fighting these guys will shout ‘Hello mister’ whilst being pursued by Australian troops. One NZ reporter I was talking to last night almost got caught in crossfire, but I guess that goes with territory.

But as for me, i'm getting bored, our amusement of the day is watching the dogs play. Someone has upset the wind gods, probably Australian troops hot legging through sacred trees, so even if we could go diving, the water is too choppy. Ill never complain about not having enough days off again!

What no limes! – East Timor 26th May 2006

East Timor has been full of firsts for me, my first leaf scorpionfish, my first Divemaster course, my first solo dive commercial job, my first earthquake, my first evacuation briefing by the British Embassy and the first time an Australian battleship has obscured by normally idyllic view of the sea. Living in East Timor at the moment is interesting, actually, its not, its bloody boring because we have all be told to leave the country or stay at home, so no diving!

There was a great episode in the series ‘The West Wing’ where the word ‘recession’ was not allowed to be used, so they used ‘biscuit’ instead. Back in April we started with a ‘biscuit’, scrotes running amok, vandalising and looting, somewhat akin to football hooligans. This was quoted by ABC News as ‘Pitched battles on the streets of Dili’, really? Where? Unfortunately, just recently the situation rose to the status of ‘bagel’, then ‘baguette’, and now we are at ‘bloomer’ or ‘damper’ for the Australian troops.

The British Embassy have been pretty cool keeping us informed, they didn’t rise to the hysteria levels of the Australians who evacuated all non-essential personnel after the first shot was fired. They did give us a great briefing regarding our options and evacuation procedures if it became necessary, pack a run bag, keep your passport on you etc. This was served with a smile, orange juice and biscuits (the edible kind), all very British. In an open forum of questions, the most important question raised was ‘Does anyone know where I can get some limes?’, if we were going to be confined to barracks we needed to stock up on the essential things such as food, water, gin, tonic and of course, limes. A G&T is just not the same without it!

That briefing did change the atmosphere, having to pack my bags made me weigh up the options of leaving. Wayne was assessing which room in the house was the safest, the one surrounded by most internal structural walls, to shield from bullets. That was a bit too much realism for me.

Driving around later in a lime pursuit, the streets of Dili were quiet, most of the cart vendors had packed and few cars were on the road. But the beaches were lined with smiling Timorese faces, they were watching the Australian battleship coming across the horizon, a welcome sight because the vast majority here just want to see and end to it. They had 25 years of fighting, with their homes burned and their love ones tortured and murdered, the last thing they want is a small faction reeking mayhem in their country.

The hotels are packed with journalists, one joker even checked in the Esplanada with a surfboard! He’s optimistic. My boss being an ex-war correspondent, and knowing the Dili streets like the back of his hand has landed himself a few days work as a driver. Well, we may as well use the dive truck for something as we can't go diving. He came back yesterday full of adrenaline, he’s having a great time back in the saddle. He brought in a couple of bullet proof vests, those things are really heavy, how anyone is supposed to run with that thing on, god only knows, its about the same weight as scuba gear.

There is fighting, there is bang-bang (a journo term!), there are dead (reportedly), but living with two ex-journalists has taught me to put things into perspective, it's not in my backyard. I live on the waterfront in Dili, in embassy alley. It seems essential here that all embassies have a huge amount of land and a sea view. So in a way it’s probably one of the safest parts of Dili as very few Timorese (or anyone else for that matter) live on this stretch of road.

Dili is a small place and the rumour mill is rife, people gossip and the press pick up on it, half the time its blown way out of proportion. I’ve heard everything from Xanana Gusmao has overturned the government and put the military in charge, to Xanana’s house has been attacked by a machete wielding mob, all of which just wasn’t true; it's like Chinese whispers in a small city like this. What doesn’t help is the Australian TV networks using footage from the violence of 1999, most public viewers would think the footage was from today, not 7 years ago.

At the moment our peace is broken not by gunfire, but by low flying helicopters. Everyone is optimistic that the situation will be resolved promptly, especially when the Australian forces that have been shipped in here actually outnumber the Timorese Army and Police together.

There was a bit of panic this morning with Timorese packing bags and leaving the city, but we have now been informed by Wayne our personal eye-witness reporter, that hundreds of Australian troops are marching down the main street of Dili, reassuring the locals that the city is safe, which is exactly what is needed.

We all hope that it is over soon, as the country is beautiful, the people so friendly and the diving is some of the best I’ve ever done in 14 years of diving.