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.