"I PRETENDED TO BE DEAD..."

HOW A 12 YEAR OLD GIRL SURVIVED THE HADITHA MASSACRE

SOUTH KOREANS KNOW CIVILIAN MASSACRES ARE NOTHING NEW FOR US SOLDIERS



The reportage on the Haditha massacre in Iraq, where 24 civilians were gunned down by US Marines, continues to uncover shocking details of just how far soldiers have gone to cover up the deaths of civilians, but has also revealed the enormous pressure and strain the Iraq War is putting on the soldiers, and their senior officers, as they return for third tours of the war zone.

UPDATE : This report from the LA Times claims that the military investigations have already found the Marines involved had "wantonly killed unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, and then tried to cover up the slayings..."

That criminal charges, including possible charges of murder, will be filed against a number of Marines under investigation, appears to be a certainty.

An administrative inquiry overseen by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell found that several infantry Marines fatally shot as many as 24 Iraqis and that other Marines either failed to stop them or filed misleading or blatantly false reports. Looking for insurgents, the Marines entered several homes and began firing their weapons, according to the report.

The Marines, many of whom were on their third deployment to Iraq, are part of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducted a separate investigation, is expected to call for criminal charges, including murder, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and filing a false report.

US Congressman John Murtha claims he has been briefed on the Haditha massacre investigation by Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee.

"The reports that I have," Murtha said, "from the highest level: No firing at all. No interaction. No military action at all in this particular incident. It was an explosive device, which killed a Marine. From then on, it was purely shooting people."

The former Marine said it's extremely clear what happened in Haditha : there was a massacre of civilians by US Marines, and the Department of Defence then conducted a cover-up operation.

"I know there was a cover-up....They knew about this a few days afterwards," Murtha said.

"There is no question the chain of command tried to stifle this story. I understand why, but that doesn't excuse it."

ABC News America has a report on an interview 12 year old Safa Younis gave the day after the November 19 massacre to a human rights group.

"They knocked at the door. My father went to open it, they shot him dead from behind the door, and then they shot him again after they opened the door."

She claims the Marines stormed through the rest of the house, firing their weapons and letting off a grenade.

Safa was in a bedroom of the house, with her mother and her sisters.

She said one Marine came into the bedroom, "...and shot us all. I pretended to be dead … and he did not know about me."

The Marines involved never denied there were civilian deaths, but they first claimed the deaths had resulted from a gun battle with insurgents.

The Marine Corps Times reported in late April that the battalion commander and two company commanders were fired on April 7 for "lack of confidence in their leadership", and are reported to have been involved in the Haditha massacre.

Although they are believed to have been fired over an alleged cover-up of the massacre, the decision to remove them from the Army was "motivated by multiple incidents".

Originally the Marines claimed the civilians were killed by the roadside bomb that took the life of one of their fellow Marines. Then they claimed at least one person had fired on them from a house, which led to the Kilo Company raiding homes in search of the gunman.

Only a few of the twelve Marines under investigation are believed to have been involved in the execution of the 24 civilians. Of them, one four man team, led by a sergeant, may have fired most, or all, of the shots that led to the deaths.

The LA Times claimed on May 30 that this "same sergeant is suspected of filing a false report downplaying the number of Iraqis killed, saying they were killed by an insurgent's bomb..."

The sergeant's report fell apart once photographs, the videos, statements from other Marines and inspections of the houses where the killings occurred, were taken into account.

The other eight or so Marines are being investigated, and may face criminal charges, because they did not act to stop the killings, or because they did not file accurate reports of the massacre.


ABC News America also reports on the Marines sent into Haditha late in the afternoon on November 19 to collect and transport the bodies to a morgue.

Lance Corp. Ryan Briones was one of those Marines. He says he is "haunted" by what he saw inside the houses where the massacre occurred.

Worst of all, he said, was when he had to collect the body of one of the young girls who had been shot through the head. When he was carrying her out of the house, her massively wounded head fell apart and blood and brain tissue spilled down his pants.

He said the victims were "little babies...adult males and females...I can still smell the blood."


The LA Times reports that photographs taken by Army intelligence officers, attached to Kilo Company, showed the dead women and six children, including one 13 month old infant, had been gunnned down "execution style", shot in the head and shot in the back.

The military investigations are now focused around twelve Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, from Camp Pendleton.

The massacre occurred during the battalion's third deployment to Iraq. In November, 2004, the battalion gained serious notoriety when one Marine was videod executing a wounded Iraqi inside a Fallujah mosque.


Another LA Times report says that another investigation is underway into the death of an Iraqi civilian in Hamandiya, which exposes a disturbing tactic employed by Marines to cover-up the deaths of unarmed Iraqis.

Officials told the LA Times that : Troops may have planted an AK-47 and shovel near the body...to make it appear that the man was an insurgent placing an improvised explosive device to detonate beneath a military vehicle.

More than two dozen Marines from the 3rd Battalion are now under investigation for the Haditha massacre and the civilian killed in Hamandiya.

Some 300 Marines and personnel from Camp Pendleton have been killed in Iraq, more than any other US military base.


Death certificates showing the civilians were shot in the head, back and chest were in the hands of senior officers at Camp Pendleton no later than early February.

The certificates were mentioned in a report filed after a three week investigation that started on February 14.

When the colonel reported his findings to the senior ground commander in Iraq on March 9, there were enough questions raised by the inconsistencies uncovered for a criminal investigation to be ordered.

The initial report sparked a second, parallel, investigation into who had attempted to cover up what happened in Haditha.

This second investigation was also started because payments of almost $US40,000 cash had been made to the families of those massacred by mid-December.

The officer who was told to make the payments claims he was instructed to do so by his superior officers. But only 15 of the 24 civilians killed were deemed innocent civilians at the time.

This meant the families of the other nine victims were not due any compensation at all.

When the families of the 15 were paid out, the families of the nine others killed demanded payment of compensation as well.

The Marines have a rule, apparently, that no more than $2500 is paid to the families of each civilian killed, once they have been deemed to be a non-insurgent. $250 was paid to the families of two of the children injured in the massacre.

The Australian government has authorised payments totalling more than $US40,000 to the families of Iraqis injured or killed, mostly in Baghdad, though they haven't come clean as why these payments have been made, and how many families, or injured civilians, have been compensated.

Claim : President Bush First Learned About Massacre From The Media

GO HERE FOR OUR EARLIER COVERAGE ON THE HADITHA MASSACRE


THE MASSACRE OF SOUTH KOREANS AT NO GUN LI

For a number of now elderly South Koreans, the news of at least one confirmed massacre in Iraq by US soldiers, and the likelihood of dozens more, will come as no great surprise.

In 1950, during the Korean War, US Marines opened fire on South Korean civilians who ventured too close to 'The Line'.

The order for the massacre of at least a few hundred civilians, mostly women and children fleeing towns and villages swallowed up by the Korean War, came from the top and was long denied by the US military, and successive US governments.

But a letter from the US ambassador to Seoul now reveals that US soldiers were ordered to shoot refugees, as part of their rules of engagement.

"If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," wrote Ambassador John J. Muccio.

The same day the letter was sent, the 7th US Calvary Regiment shot "400, mostly women and children" refugees at No Gun Ri.

South Korean survivors claim that hundreds more refugees were gunned down in other, later, episodes.

From The Washington Post :

The No Gun Ri killings were documented in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story by the Associated Press in 1999, which prompted a 16-month Pentagon inquiry.

The Pentagon concluded that the No Gun Ri shootings, which lasted three days, were "an unfortunate tragedy" -- "not a deliberate killing."

It suggested panicky soldiers, acting without orders, opened fire because they feared that an approaching line of families, baggage and farm animals concealed enemy troops.

But Muccio's letter indicates the actions of the 7th Cavalry were consistent with policy, adopted because of concern that North Koreans would infiltrate via refugee columns. And in subsequent months, U.S. commanders repeatedly ordered refugees shot, documents show.

(The US ambassador's letter said that) U.S. commanders feared disguised North Korean soldiers were infiltrating American lines via refugee columns.

As a result, those meeting on the night of July 25, 1950 -- top staff officers of the U.S. 8th Army...and South Korean officials, decided on a policy of air-dropping leaflets telling South Korean civilians not to head south toward U.S. defense lines and of shooting them if they did approach U.S. lines despite warning shots...

Survivors (of the No Gun Ri massacres) said U.S. soldiers first forced them from nearby villages on July 25, 1950, and then stopped them in front of U.S. lines the next day, when they were attacked without warning by aircraft as hundreds sat atop a railroad embankment.

Troops of the 7th Cavalry followed with ground fire as survivors took shelter under a railroad bridge.

...research uncovered at least 19 declassified U.S. military documents showing commanders ordered or authorized such killings in 1950-51.

POPE ASKS : WHERE WAS GOD DURING THE HOLOCAUST?

WHERE WAS GOD DURING ALL THE MASS SLAUGHTERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY?

Pope Benedict asked, during his visit to Auschwitz, the following :

"How many questions arise in this place! Constantly the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?"

Where was God?

The same place God was during all the other massacres, holocausts, genocides and mass slaughters of the 20th century.

Elsewhere.

Where was God during the slaughter of millions in Rwanda, Somalia and the Congo?

Where was God during the firebombing of civilian-filled cities like Dresden and Tokyo?

Where was God during the Armenian genocide?

Where was God during the massacre of civilians in Algiers, Indonesia, Blieburg, Hama, Taiwan, Seoul, Fallujah, to name a few of monstrous mass slaughters of the 20th century?

Where was God on September 11?

Where was God during the reign of Pol Pot, of Stalin, of Nixon?

Where was God when one-third of the East Timorese population was slaughtered?

Elsewhere.

By the hand of their fellow humans, during times of 'war', 100 to 200 million people were killed between 1900 and 2000.

Go here for the comprehensive Wikipedia entry on 'Massacres'.

As shocking as it may be to realise, it is none the less true that the majority of young people in the world today know little about the Holocaust and how this monstrous stain on humanity came to be a reality.

Why?

Because the Holocaust was not an anomaly of the 20th century and the mass killings of humans hasn't stopped since.

There's too much money in it. There were millionaires made during the Holocaust, just as there were thousands of new millionaires made during World War I and tens of thousands made during the rest of World War II.

Just as there are now multi-millionaires growing ever richer today from the ongoing slaughter in the Congo, in Darfur, in Iraq.

If the mass killing of other humans was a global industry, then it stands as the most successful and most profitable of the 20th century.

We will never forget.

But what have we learned?

Major General Smedley Butler was the most honoured member of the US Military at the time of his death in the 1930s.

He wrote one of the most famous anti-war works in history, entitled 'War Is A Racket', which exposed the vast profits made during the appalling slaughter of World War I, and predicted the coming explosion of war as a monstrously profitable industry.

He was right. The global war industry is now second only to illegal drugs for sales and profit. Remarkably, the war industry is set to eclipse the worldwide drug trade as the biggest industry on the planet.

"War is a racket," Smedly wrote.

"It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

"A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

"In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War."

US MARINES COULD FACE DEATH PENALTY OVER IRAQI CIVILIAN MASSACRE

CLAIM : AT LEAST SIX CHILDREN EXECUTED IN RAMPAGE OF "REVENGE"


The UK Independent On Sunday is reporting that US Marines responsible for the execution-style murder of more than 20 Iraqi civilians, including men, women and at least six children, could face the death penalty for their crimes.

A Marine took photographs of the scene of the slaughter on his mobile phone.

The photographs, seized by the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), show many victims shot at close range in the head and chest, execution-style, according to sources who have seen them. One image shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer. Both have been shot dead.

The killing of more than 20 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last November...has become an international scandal after evidence from two official investigations was shown to Congressmen in the past 10 days.

Democrat John Murtha, a former Marines colonel who has retained close links to the military despite his denunciation of the Iraq occupation, said Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood".

According to reports in the US, military prosecutors may seek the death penalty for those found guilty of murder. Three Marines officers have already been relieved of duty, and more may be disciplined in a separate investigation into whether there was a cover-up after the killings.

The official account of what happened in Haditha on 19 November has gradually unravelled since the initial claim that one Marine, 20-year-old Lance-Corporal Miguel Terrazas, and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed when a roadside bomb went off next to a convoy of Humvees passing through the town.

Gunmen "attacked the convoy with small-arms fire", a statement added, and the Marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding one.

It appears that the wounded man later died, bringing the number of Iraqis killed to 24.

The Marines did not begin to change their story until an Iraqi human rights group obtained the journalism student's video, which showed that no Iraqis were killed in the bomb explosion. The houses where they died were bullet-riddled inside, but had no external marks, casting doubts on the soldiers' claims that there had been a firefight.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that victims of the massacre begged for their lives.

Witnesses...say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a lance corporal in a roadside bombing.

Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident....recalled hearing his neighbour across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for the lives of himself and his family. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " said Fahmi.

"But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."

The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on November 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post correspondent in Haditha this week.

The girls killed inside Mr Khafif's house were aged 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1.

"WHO COVERED IT UP?...IT GOES RIGHT UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND"

BABY, 3 YEAR OLD, 76 YEAR OLD EXECUTED - US MILITARY BRACES FOR MAJOR SCANDAL

REVEALED : HOW US MARINES MASSACRED 24 CIVILIANS

IRAN MILITIAS TAKE CONTROL OF SOUTHERN IRAQ - IRAQ TO BECOME DOMAIN OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS


Go To The Fourth World War Blog For More

A Headstone For Casey's Grave

By Darryl Mason

In only a few months, more than 250,000 people took the time to go online and post a web page, or blog entry, to air their disgust at what they saw as one of the worst acts of neglect possible against a dead American soldier.

Not having a big marble headstone installed on his grave.

The dead soldier was Casey Sheehan, who died in Iraq in 2004. The focus of all this outrage, disgust and stomach-churning hatred was his mother, Cindy Sheehan, who chose instead to have her son's grave marked with a small placard :



That wasn't good enough for 250,000 right-wing bloggers and website posters. Or the millions more who just had to comment on the urban legend.

According to a handful of such sites and blog posts, Cindy Sheehan had betrayed her son, had fouled his memory, had disrespected the entire US Military service, and the veterans of all wars, by not immediately installing a big, fat marble headstone on his grave site.

Most of these dementoids fell for a superbly manufactured piece of black propaganda. They worked themselves into a froth believing the lie that Casey Sheehan's grave was not marked at all. Not even with the tasteful placard above.

This photo was widely distributed as proof of that :



It didn't matter that you could clearly see that the lawn had been cleared around the placard, they had found their ammunition and they opened fire.

Like their gullibility for many of the lies, distortions and black propaganda distributed to build a case for the War On Iraq, these dementoids took the photo above as being proof that Cindy Sheehan didn't love her son, and didn't care enough to mark his grave, despite the fact that the grave was clearly marked.

Her crime then? Cindy Sheehan doesn't like headstones.

Sheehan reacted to the weeks and weeks of attacks by claiming she had been a victim of a "heartless and ignorant smear machine". She sure got that right.

Since the death of her son, Sheehan has become probably the most famous anti-war protestor in the world, despite giving some pretty boring speeches. She now claims she is on a mission to end the war in Iraq, get the troops home and for the war industry killing on all sides in Iraq to stop.

By speaking out, by daring to criticise her president to a media all too willing to elevate her to 'war-mum-matyr' status, and for having the tenacity to suggest that Israel might benefit from having had Saddam Hussein, one of its chief enemies in the Middle East, taken out of the game, Sheehan left herself open to a monstrous right-wing smear campaign to discredit her and to blacken her name.

It's no accident, of course, that such a wave of misplaced criticism, and attack-dog abuse, also served as a lesson to be learned for any other anti-war mothers who were thinking of speaking out about what had happened to their children in Iraq, or how their deaths had shattered their families.

This kind of vicious attack-and-smear campaign is nothing new, of course.

Anti-war mothers in the US, from those who protested against the Civil War (giving birth to Mother's Day in the process), World War I & II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, have always been shredded by a media machine, which often has some very curious links to, and support from, the very same arms and industrial military corporations that benefit most from the US being locked into a century-long cycle of endless war, invasion and international conflict.

On the campaign against her and why she wouldn't put up a heastone, Cindy Sheehan said this : "They can't stop me from trying to save lives. No matter what they cook up next. It is too important. No more needless gravestones. No more wasted lives."

Two months ago, Cindy finally agreed with other members of her family, including Casey's father, that a headstone should be installed on her son's grave. The job was finished last Thursday.



From the Vacaville Reporter :

"Our Casey," reads an inscription on the front. "Ever faithful, kind, and gentle, good son, beloved brother, brave soldier, dear friend, you loved your family and lived your life serving others to the end."

Six icons grace the other side, representing a military insignia, the theater, Eagle Scouts, Van Halen, the World Wrestling Federation and Superman.

Also on the front are Casey's name and the dates of his life and death, which reveal an uncanny synchronicity. In addition to Memorial Day, Monday will also be Casey's birthday, the day on which he would have turned 27.

Cindy Sheehan had this to say last week : "Casey's shell lies in the grave in Vacaville. He is with me always and in the hearts of people all over the world who know his story and are working for peace."

For the milions of pro-war enthusiasts who hate small grave placards, but love big headstones, it's time to get started on a new project.

We suggest a worldwide, right-wing, dementoid blog campaign to get Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of President George W. Bush, honoured with a big headstone instead of this pathetic little grave plaque :



You'd think with all the money of the Bush dynasty, they'd manage to scrape together a few grand to buy the legendary man a big headstone. But no.

Obviously this is all his family thinks the senator was worth.

Casey Sheehan's grave went without a headstone for just over two years.

Prescott Bush's grave has been waiting for more than three decades.


Iraq War Widows Seek Strength Amongst Grief And Loss

THE EAST TIMOR CRISIS UPDATES

PEOPLE HACKED AND SPEARED BY MOBS

AUSTRALIAN FORCES UNDER FIRE

US MARINES ENTER EAST TIMOR

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER ACCUSED OF "INTERFERING" IN EAST TIMOR

100,000 FLEE DILI

UPDATE : At least 50 US Marines and an unknown number of special forces, plus an unknown number of Blackwater Security guards (clearly visible on TV news reports) have now entered East Timor to protect “US interests”.

Today’s Sunday papers carry stories about Australian troops in at least one village not interfering as ‘rebel’ military raid and loot homes, though they have clearly saved lives in other confrontations between armed and angry villagers and 'militias'.

It’s been made pretty clear, by the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, that there will be no disarming of government or anti-government military by Australian troops, although soldiers have disarmed a number of gang members.

A ‘rebel’ military force of at least 700, with ongoing defections of cops and soldiers swelling their ranks, are outside of Dili and have been staging raids on villages but the major leading them has declared he will not order them to attack Dili.

The pro-government military forces have been accused of arming civilian militias.

The East Timorese prime minister continues to insist there has been a coup attempt against his government.

Armed gangs of East and West Timorese are seeking brutal revenge and payback, fighting each other with rifles, slingshots, bows and arrows, burning homes of ‘enemies’, trying to enter hospitals to kill wounded cops, and they’re all linked up by mobile phones to warn their friends of where Australian patrols are, and where they’re heading to.

Hundreds more New Zealand and Malaysian soldiers, with their own special forces in tow, or already on the ground in preparation, continue to flood into East Timor.

Australian warships are in Dili harbour and off the coast, and at least six Blackhawk helicopters are conducting air ops across the city.

And all this started because of a pay and promotions dispute between West Timor soldiers in the East Timor Military?

The Fog of this war has already well and truly descended.

Here's the round-up of this morning's media reports :

Australian soldiers "saved the PM" of East Timor as gang members tried to storm a Dili hotel where he was planning to hold a press conference.

East Timor's Foreign Minister has blamed slow Australian intervention for some of the violence and panic of Friday and Saturday, when dozens of homes were torched and at least 25 people were killed, and dozens injured.

"I have urged the Australian side to be visible," he said. "The foreign troops are not having an impact. The biggest problem is the absence of a strong Australian presence."


Almost half of the entire population of Dili are reported to have fled the city, as men, women and children are threatened, attacked, shot at, speared and struck with arrows by rampaging mobs and armed militias.


Hundreds of East Timorese have tried to enter the grounds of the Australian embassy, as this is now seen as being the safest place to be.


From the Sydney Morning Herald : Australian troops have braved gunfire for the first time in their East Timor mercy mission, rescuing terrified families and some wounded people from a rampage by rival armed civilian gangs.

A squad of 10 heavily armed soldiers moved on foot into a neighbourhood in central Dili near the United Nations compound after shooting broke out around 500 metres away.

The Australians faced down gang members and shouted out warnings but fired no shots.

However, they were able to shepherd hundreds of panicked local people, many in tears, to safety through alleyways.

Local people said the fighting was between rival ethnic "eastern" Lorosae and "western" Loromonu clans.

The gang members were dressed in civilian clothes and carrying automatic weapons and spears as they unleashed their anger on one another.

Another version of the same events here.

From News.com : Dili exploded in communal violence under the noses of Australia's military task force yesterday. Entire neighbourhoods descended into gang warfare and anarchy as old ethnic scores were settled, leaving angry locals asking - where are the Australian troops?

Dozens of homes were torched, and mobs of young men roamed the streets armed with guns, machetes, knives, pipes and slingshots.

Too few Australian soldiers were on the ground to prevent neighbours attacking neighbours, the burning of homes and widespread looting.

This was less than 24 hours after the Australian commander, Brigadier Mick Slater, said: "This is not what I would call a dangerous situation."

In one case, an entire platoon of diggers drove almost straight past an outbreak of savage violence so they could get to the government offices where they took up positions on the wide stucco veranda overlooking the harbour.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, houses burned and locals were being hacked or speared by rampaging mobs.


From The Melbourne Age : The East Timorese army is being ordered back to barracks to quell the nation's killing, but troops on the ground last night continued to fight rebel soldiers.

Senior Government sources said military commander Taur Matan Ruak had given the order to force soldiers back to barracks. It came after revelations that soldiers had armed civilian militias, according to East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta.

Army personnel had given "weapons to civilians, in the most irresponsible manner," he said. "This is very dangerous. Disarming them is difficult."

Australian troops moved to secure key locations around Dili, including the police headquarters. More than 1800 troops will be in place tonight, a significant expansion on the intended force of 1300 in the face of violence and deteriorating security.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australian soldiers were authorised to shoot to kill if they were fired on.

The Portugal Foreign Minister has ripped into the Australian Prime Minister for comments he has made in the past two days over the "instability" of East Timor and his questioning of the current leaders' ability to govern their nation.

Howard told the Australian media on Friday, "there's no beating around the bush" on the issue of the East Timor government being responsible for the breakdown of order, and that there was a "significant governance problem".

"We consider this an interference in the internal affairs of East Timor and ... we disagree with this kind of statement by foreign countries," said Portugal's Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas de Amaral.

"We must not add a political and institutional crisis to the crisis of public order. Both crises at the same time are a recipe for disaster. If we put the two problems together, we have practically all the conditions for a civil war. We must do everything to avoid that."

Go here for more on this.


Lieutenant Colonel Michael Mumford, the commanding officer of the 3rd battalion of the Australian paratroopers, told Australian media in a press conference on Saturday that keeping East and West Timorese gangs from attacking each other is : "...obviously and exactly why we're here."

He reckons that with a force of almost 1800 strong, there is enough Australian troops on the ground and confidently announced that, "I don't think we are likely to have any difficulties over the next 48, 72 hours..."

"We're here to support the peace and stability of East Timor and its government."

The 'rebel' leader of the breakaway military force in East Timor has been branded a "troublemaker" by members of Melbourne's East Timorese community.

Melbourne-based leader Gil Santos said Major Reinado was a "backward" man whose rise to prominence had shocked the tight-knit local community.

He said Maj Reinado had lived in Melbourne with his wife and son for two years before returning to East Timor in 1997 to lead mutineers.

"I didn't think he would be one of the leaders who would take such a stand," Mr Santos said.

According to the Malaysian forces, now in East Timor, Australian military officials are in charge co-ordinating the ongoing operations.

The Malaysian troops were deployed to Dili airport, port, government buildings and embassies, he said.

Two navy vessels have also been deployed to ferry their equipment, including armoured personnel carriers, to Dili.

From ABC News : The former deputy commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor says he believes international troops withdrew from East Timor too quickly after it became an independent nation.

Retired Major General Mike Smith said : "As much as the departure of international forces and particularly Australian forces was graduated and was based on good reason, the fact of the matter is that security has been wanting since that departure."

Evacuees from East Timor are being flown into Darwin. They are mostly Australian nationals, but news footage has shown at least a few dozen East Timorese arriving on the C-130 flights, mostly women and children.

The Australian Defence Force is expected to begin transporting casualties into Darwin today.


AUSTRALIAN COMMANDER TO MEET EAST TIMOR 'REBEL' LEADER TODAY

DOZENS OF HOMES TORCHED IN EAST TIMOR

PAST FAULT LINES HAVE LED TO A FRACTURED PRESENT

ETHNIC FIGHTING RAGES IN EAST TIMORESE CAPITAL

EAST TIMOR WRACKED BY CARNAGE AND CHAOS

GANGS GO TO WAR WITH GUNS, MACHETES, SPEARS, SLIGHSHOTS AND BOWS AND ARROWS

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS FRUSTRATED BY HIT AND RUN TACTICS

50,000 EAST TIMORESE FLEE THE VIOLENCE

'REBEL' LEADER TELLS HIS MEN TO HOLD 'THE LINE' OUTSIDE DILI

Australian troops continue to try and restore order in Dili, as outbreaks of ethnic youth gang violence erupts across the city.

Australian troops have been shot at by gang members armed with assault rifles. The gangs are using hit-and-run tactics amongst the Australian foot patrols and are using mobile phones to tip each other off about where the Australian soldiers are and the directions they're heading in next.

There is no front line, and for the moment, the 'rebel' military force led by Major Alfredo Reinado has all but slipped from view.

Major Reinado had extensive, and very recent, military training in Australia.

He claims he has now ordered his 600-plus strong force of disgruntled soldiers and defected police to hold their position in the hills 25km to the south of Dili and not push forward.

"If I ordered them to push forward I could have been in Dili two days ago if I wanted to, but I'm not doing that, I'm not a criminal. So far no civilians there have been hit by any single bullets of my men.

But there are already rumours rising that Reinado is doing the exact opposite, and that his troops are raiding villages on the outskirts of Dili, while Australian forces do nothing to to disrm the 'rebel' soldiers.

The road link between Dili and the airport, through which Australian forces are flooding into East Timor, has been locked down by literally hundreds of Australian soldiers, ensuring this key access point is kept open.

A UN official told the ABC the current fighting in and around Dili was "a communal dispute that's escalated....It's basically payback time between the different groups."

The fighting is now being described by some as a clash between East and West Timor - "It's east against west, soldiers against soldiers, police against soldiers, everyone against everyone..."

Australian soldiers, and undercover special forces, have been stripping people of guns, but gang members are stashing home made slingshots and bows and arrows as soon as foreigners come into view, and then retrieving them once the soldiers leave an area. And so the fighting between gangs continues.

Rival youth gangs of East And West Timorese are said to be taken advantage of the chaos to carry out payback on each other for past disputes, amidst vast lingering hatred over the massacres by West Timorese militias on their neighbours through 1999 and 2000.

Residents of some neighbourhoods have erected makeshift roadblocks in an attempt to protect their homes but houses and numerous cars are ablaze.

"Where am I supposed to go home tonight?" shouted a woman whose house was burnt down.

"Everything I have is up in smoke."

The UN, meanwhile, is pulling out the majority of its 300-400 staff.

The East Timorese Prime Minister has claimed the violence is part of an attempted coup.

Australian forces had secured "key facilities" in and around the capital Dili by late Saturday afternoon, including the main hospital where dozens of police who were escaped execution in an attack by the government's military are still being treated.

Gunmen are said to have attempted to enter the hospital to finish off the wounded cops.

The police station where at least nine unarmed cops were massacred on Friday has also been secured by Australian forces, as well as government buildings, the UN compound and the Australian embassy.

Through Saturday morning and early afternoon, men armed with guns, bows and arrows, rocks and machetes went rampaging through Dili, burning and looting houses the moment Australian forces left one street to secure another.

The attacks saw at least one young girl shot, another man was hit in the chest by an arrow and people were taken to the hospital with machete wounds.

The women and children of Dili are reported to be particularly vulnerable and have been the targets of focused attacks, resulting in hundreds of women and children fleeing into the mountains outside Dili, and hiding out in churches and schools.

220 Malaysian Paratroopers And Commandos Now In East Timor

200 New Zealand Soldiers Heading For Year Long Deployment In East Timor

Dire Food Shortages Reported In East Timor

Australian Forces Trying To Force East Timorese Police And Military Back To Barracks

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