Policing the Pacific

摘要

Another week, another fail-Ying Pacific state: Australia must be wearying of the troubles in its backyard. This time it is Timor-Leste, or East Timor as it was until recently known. On May 25th John Howard, Australia's prime minister, ordered 150 soldiers to be sent to his tiny neighbour, a half-island that broke away from Indonesia in 1999 after 24 years of brutal occupation and has been chaotically misgoverned ever since. Its latest troubles (see page 66) have been caused by the mutiny of close to half its army, and compounded by a breakdown in the relationship between its president and its prime minister.