Aussies under fire in Dili - we don't get all the world's thankless assignments

In Dili, it's 'total madness' - National - theage.com.au:
"Australian soldiers came under fire for the first time yesterday as they rescued terrrified families from rival gangs, some armed with automatic weapons. 'It's east against west, soldiers against soldiers, police against soldiers, everyone against everyone,' said Father Lalo, a Catholic priest on the streets, urging people to put down their weapons. 'It's total madness.'"

Once again, my hat is off to the Australians. These same wonderful folks who have fought beside Americans in every significant fighting for the last century (including Vietnam) are doing their own share of policing the world's messy parts. In this case, the object of their attention is the one-time Portuguese colony of East Timor which split from Indonesia a few years ago.

I called this a thankless task, it is worse than that, "... East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta blamed the 'slow pace' of the Australian response for the violence and panic." The report in The Age goes on to note "Just two weeks ago Mr Ramos Horta rejected the need for foreign troops as the Dili Government struggled to cope with a crisis sparked by mass desertions from its armed forces by disaffected soldiers."

This Ramos Horta character seems ill-suited for a high government post, at least if logic is useful in government. Look at these two paragraphs from The Age coverage and see if you can make any sense of what he says:

"Mr Ramos Horta said rebel soldiers and police who sparked the crisis were not involved in yesterday's violence. 'The situation in Dili is done by renegade police, militia type groups and gangs,' he said.

"Although some residents blamed the army for the violence, Mr Ramos Horta said militias wearing uniforms — and with guns provided by army elements — were responsible."

Let me see, its not rebel police who are involved but renegade police; and don't blame the army, they only supplied the uniforms and weapons. Duh!