An Acrid Freedom

An Australian peacekeeping soldier walks past a burning house while patrolling Dili. (Photo:Reuters)

Independent since 1999, the good folks of East Timor have watched helplessly as their nation was taken over by gangs "armed with homemade weapons, machetes, a can of petrol and a lighter" and "more than half of the aid it received on gaining independence...spent on consultancy fees and salaries." Needless to say, poverty is a bigger problem now than when the Indonesian army oversaw law and order; and now the law and order is just as brutal as it was under the Indonesian army.