With a sizable Australian peacekeeping force back in East Timor after riots in the capital in May, the Australian Defence Force finds itself patroling the same streets it did seven years ago this week.
On September 20, 1999, the United Nations mission InterFET, led by nearly 3-thousand Australian troops, intervened in organised violence just three weeks after the nation voted for independence from Indonesia.
The intervention put Australia at odds with Indonesia, with both governments going to great pains to not upset their delicate relationship as the armed troops of both nations shared the same streets, but for entirely different reasons.
On the seventh anniversary of InterFET, Adam Connors takes us through the uncertainty and complications of this very unique mission.
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