Bagpipes and Guns - East Timor 25th Oct 2006

The British Embassy, Dili, East Timor closed Friday the 13th of October 2006. It was really a very sad occasion because the staff there have been brilliant through the crisis, and like all Brits, we get very patriotic at times. They couldn’t find a Brit to play the bagpipes, so a young Ozzy soldier arrived with his mate, laid down his machine gun and took out his bagpipes. Then in full army uniform including flack jacket, he played the bagpipes as the British flag was lowered! A surreal moment in East Timor again! The ceremony was concluded with champagne and a Union Jack cake, cut by Jamon (the British Ambassadors husband), because it was his birthday that day also.

I’ve been trying to teach Jamon to dive, which is interesting as he is Thai and doesn’t read English, so the theory is a challenge as Thai looks like worms to me. When I asked him ‘What is the most important rule of scuba diving?’ to which the answer should be ‘Never hold your breath’, he thought about it carefully and after about 3 minutes he said ‘I know, no alcohol before diving!’

Another surreal moment happened in the Esplanada pool where I was teaching a load of kids Bubblemaker. Two Blackhawk helicopters swooped low over the hotel and the kids all started waving. This is what 8 year olds in Dili have got used to!

The Australian Defence Force has been heavily criticised for taking their APV’s (Armoured Patrol Vehicles), into the sea to test the seals. Stupidly they took them in at low tide off of the main beach which is strewn with coral, you would think they would have thought about this, instead heaps of coral was damaged and the soldiers in question are receiving counselling for their inappropriate behaviour! To make matters worse, the beach, Christo Rei is Dili’s favourite snorkelling beach because of the calm water and beautiful coral.

It’s apparently whale season, but I haven’t seen any yet, but we are starting to see quite a few sharks. Two of my students saw a 2½ meter white tip reef shark on both Open Water 3 and 4. Spoilt for the rest of their diving days, now nothing will seem as good, until they see their first whale shark or manta that is.

The trouble here in Dili is escalating and for the first time in 6 months it’s on our doorstep. A report was issued about the unlawful killing of several policemen and the recommendations of actions to go with it, which included charging several prominent figures with murder. Everyone was holding their breath waiting for this report to come out knowing that it would have repercussions.

The trouble now seems to be throughout Dili including outside our dive centre. We watched little scroats lob stones at motorbikes and cars as they drove past, unfortunately they have a whole beach full of ammunition. In retaliation a taxi drove past and it’s passenger fired an ambon arrow at the main ring leader who was holding his child at the time. Luckily, the arrow missed, but all hell broke loose with the village boys screaming down the road with rocks. A few minutes later, it was like a scene out of The Sweeney, GNR, AFP and UN Police with flashing lights everywhere. Of course the ringleader protested his innocence, he was minding his own business, carrying his toddler at his sisters/aunties/wife’s vegetable stall when unprovoked, the gang from East fired an arrow at him. Of course the ringleader failed to mention to the police that he had been throwing stones for the last two days and actually was the organiser of a gang of stone throwers. The vegetable stall is actually doubling up as lookout point and a bunker, and the boys are starting to get clever by changing the colour of their T-shirts as soon as the forces arrive.

The AFP came to talk to us, but we are reluctant to get involved as so far we have remained neutral. If we get involved the business could be targeted which could put ourselves and especially, our staff in danger. However, it is getting incredibly boring, it’s so futile. Most the time it is just wanton vandalism, but for the first time since I’ve been here I feel that I could accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

There have been some more serious incidents though, two decapitated, limbless bodies were found in sacks at the Komoro market. Well that’s how the press reported it. Speculation is that it was this incident that has sparked all the trouble down the beach road where we live. The airport is a no go area again, they even had to close it intermittently over the last few days. There is a very large IDP camp at the Airport which has always been rife with trouble.

Today the trouble kicked off again right outside our gates, an Eastener was chased into the sea by rock throwers. The helicopter circling above had seen it and the police arrived in force with riot shields, pepper spray, batons and guns filled with bean bag shots. They soon let their presence be known. I overheard one female officer shout ‘Now fuck off you little shits!’ Feisty lady! After they had dispersed the crowd and issued warnings, three of them leant against the wall opposite and reapplied their suntan lotion, one even managed to squirt the bottle down his trousers, oops!

The IDP camps are still throughout the city and at the Metinaro barracks, looking more and more permanent every time we go past them. A huge problem will be when rainy season starts. We have already had one downpour and when it rains here, it really rains. The IDP camps are going to turn into mud baths rife with disease through poor or no sanitation and mosquito borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. What a mess! But they are still too scared to go home.

Hiawatha in Timor – East Timor 14th October 2006

There is a great loss in Timor, The British Embassy is finally closing, which is really sad as they were fantastic during the middle of the troubles here. We were cordially invited to two parties at the British Embassy this week, the Brits closure party and the general closure party, both were nice events.

I’m trying to teach the British Ambassadors husband to dive at the moment, his name is Jamon and he’s Thai and to say he is eccentric is probably an understatement. We told him that drinking alcohol was not allowed before a dive, so day one he came round with two bottles of wine to drink after the dive! At the first British Embassy 'do' we walked into the residence and were greeted by Jamon in full native American Indian dress, complete with headdress, chest jewellery and feather earrings. But with Jamon, you don’t think anything of it apart from it was a bit bizarre in the British Embassy

When I took Jamon for his first dive I went to Dili Rock and left Nelson in charge of the truck. When I came out of the water there were two Timorese guys standing by the truck staring stony faced at me. Nelson explained that they were from the West (Nelson is from the East) and they had the truck key and wanted money. I immediately picked up my mobile and threatened them with the police. They gave the key back to Nelson whilst screaming at him in Tetum, and eventually retreated to the other side of the road. As we were packing up the gear and I noticed that Nelson had got out the spanner and screwdriver from the spares kit, apparently one of the guys was carrying a knife! Nelson asked me to take the other route out of the dive site and picked up a large stone before he got in the car. Luckily the incident came to nothing, but quite shocking later when I realised I’d been involved in an attempted armed robbery!

The stoning incidents are getting worse here in Dili. A friend had a stone lobbed through his car window as he was driving over the Komoro bridge. Luckily our Drive truck is so old and tatty that it no way looks like an official vehicle, well that’s what we are hoping anyway. In a land with no insurance, all damage has to be paid for out of your own pocket

On the diving front we have good news, there was only one commercial fishing company operating off of the coast of Com. It was a Thai fishing company that was rumoured to be over fishing their quota by miles, anyway they got caught shark fin fishing a few months after their contract started. Their boat has been impounded and hopefully the government will think twice before letting another commercial fishing company fish in Timorese waters.

Wayne and Ann have started a new club called the Local Characters Club. They felt left out because they didn’t have a pass around their neck which all the UN and NGO’s do. So Ann has made official neck passes with photos and the number of years of service. To qualify for this club you must be a resident of Timor for five years or more off of your own dollar (investing in the country}. Once you have this pass, Local characters are entitled to:-

1 Park where they like
2 Enter any building (as they probably built it)
3 Drive whilst over-refreshed
4 Express controversial views or spit the dummy in public any time they like
5 Undertake to look after any other Local Character (Regardless of previous blues)

The last rule is because half the time the Local Characters are not speaking to half of the other Local Characters. All Local Character passes expire in May 2007, the date of the next Timorese election