True Blue Magazine December 2021

December 2021

True Blue OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE UNITED NATIONS & OVERSEAS POLICING ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

Edition 42 ISSN: 2203-8507

Magazine

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True Blue

Magazine

The United Nations & Overseas Policing Association of Australia, (UNOPAA) is an Australian incorporated, non-profit organisation, whose members are both serving or retired Police Officers from Police Forces throughout Australia, who have served or are serving with United Nation Peacekeeping Forces or AFP International Policing Operations throughout the world! TRUE BLUE is provided to its members throughout Australia and worldwide to where Australian Police are serving. Our magazine contains welfare, legislative and social information relevant to the well-being and camaraderie of UNOPAA members who have, or are serving in Australia’s National Interest.

Aims of the UNOPAA: 1. To maintain and foster the memory of UNOPAA members killed whilst serving with United Nations Forces or Overseas Policing operations.

2. To provide welfare, legal and financial support where and when appropriate to members.

3. To promote social occasions such as Reunions, etc., United Nations and Anzac Day Marches.

4. To pursue and lobby industrial, legal and political avenues, when necessary in order to improve the welfare and industrial benefits to our members.

We acknowledge the assistance of Countrywide Austral Pty Ltd, who, in conjunction with the UNOPAA, have made the publication and distribution of ‘TRUE BLUE’ magazine possible! Your financial contribution to the publication of our magazine is greatly appreciated.

Views and opinions expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the United Nations & Overseas Policing Association of Australia, the editor, the publisher or printer. “True Blue” is published by Countrywide Austral Pty Ltd, Melbourne from funds supplied by advertisers in this magazine. Please support our advertisers and their products.

Rod Walker True Blue Editor Email: enidandrod@tpg.com.au Mobile: 0411 953 966

UNOPAA Contacts National President Mr Mick Travers APM Mobile: 0418 297 086 Email: mt2976@gmail.com National Vice President Mr Rod Walker Tel: 0411 953 966 Email: enidandrod@tpg.com.au National Vice President Mr Dale Cooper RFD PO Box 7099 Karabar NSW 2620 Mobile: 0418 266 033 Email: unopaa@gmail.com National Secretary/Treasurer Mr Peter McDonald APM 28A Dinah Parade, Keilor East Vic 3033 Mobile: 0418 131 352 Email: vp14970@gmail.com Australian Capital Territory State President: Dale Cooper RFD PO Box 7099 Karabar NSW 2620 Mobile: 0418 266 033 Email: unopaa@gmail.com New South Wales State President: Mark Elm Email: markrobinelm1969@icloud.com

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Victoria/Tasmania State President: Shaun Young Knox Police Complex, 414 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South VIC 3152 Tel. (03) 9881 7061 Mobile: 0438 508 229 Email: shaun.young@police.vic.gov.au Queensland State President: John Walker APM Unit 230, 96 Village Way, Little Mountain QLD 4551 Mobile 0474 157 982 Email: whiskeywalker41@gmail.com South Australia State President: Garry Casey 40 Yarrabee Road, Greenhill SA 5140 Tel: 08 8390 3568 Mobile: 0427 188 449 Email: garryecasey@yahoo.com.au Western Australia State President: Darcy Boylan 21 Templemore Drive Heathridge WA 6027 Tel: 08 9402 0030 Mobile: 0408 120 299 Email: gdboylan@bigpond.com Northern Territory President: Allan Mitchell 5 Eureka Court Anula NT 0812 Tel: 08 8927 2676 Mobile: 0417 804 546 Email: almitch@bigpond.com.au

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True Blue December 2021

Contents 4

From the Editor’s desk

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Outcomes of the 2021 UNOPAA Annual General Meeting

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Disgraced Labor MP Barry Urban remanded in custody after lying to WA Parliament

24 What’s happening in Timor Leste 26 500 plus police officers will be involved in lockdown operation in Honiara

10 Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide

27 Aola Community impressed with new police station

14 UNMISS Farewells Police Commissioner

28 68 RSIPF recruits graduate as police constables

15 We all want to know the correct way to make ANZAC Biscuits

30 RSIPF farewells SIPDP advisors

16 Minister Gee’s address on Australian Peacekeeper Day

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23 UN Security Council condemns Turkish move to reopen Cyprus ghost town Varosha

31 Taliban reopens schools in Afghanistan for boys only and repurposes women’s affairs ministry

17 The Secretary-General’s message on United Nations Day 2021

32 War Crimes Investigator’s journey through Hell and back as world wakes up to reality of Afghanistan

18 United Nations Day 2021 – Canberra

36 Lennie and Ginger Mick

19 Around the Missions

37 Caption This

20 Remembering Sergeant Ian Ward

38 Does anyone remember the poetress Pam Ayres?

21 UNPOL in action

39 Vale

22 UNFICYP bids farewell to Gregory Koupparis after 40 years of service for peace

40 Membership Renewal or Application 41 Merchandise

True Blue December 2021

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Do we have your Email Address?

UNOPAA maintains a membership database and communicates with its members from time to time by email. If you haven’t been receiving these communications, it may be that we don’t have your email address, or it is out of date.

If uncertain, or it appears we don’t have it, please send your email address to the Secretary, Peter McDonald, at vp14970@gmail.com

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True Blue December 2021

From the Editor’s desk What a fantastic Christmas present to us all – ‘Lockdown’ restrictions are being eased quicker that originally planned, borders have started to reopen, not having to wear masks outside is now possible and I believe some states are looking at reviewing the compulsory wearing of masks indoors in places like shopping malls etc. (although I think that may be a personal choice by many if that happens). We can now travel and catch up with family and friends, we can even dine out at a restaurant. Such luxuries!! We thought we had it hard in NSW and ACT, having been in lockdown for 3 or 4 months, but one could almost hear the cries of rejoicing from our Victorian cousins when their restrictions were eased significantly. Having earned the title of ‘Most Locked Down city in the World’ Melburnians have certainly had it hard over the past 2 years.

Now that we are able to move about with some freedom, we can ditch the ‘Zoom’ catch ups and stop plonking ourselves in front of the TV (surely, you’ve all seen everything on Netflix, Foxtel, Stan etc). We can now work on our ever growing “COVID tummies” and become the trim, taught and terrific figures we were 2 years ago (this could take some time, so I’ll start slowly and work up to it).

As I said earlier – we now have the opportunity to catch up with family and friends in person.

Many of you will be travelling to catch up with family members that you haven’t seen for months (or even years). For some, it may be the first time you are able to physically welcome new additions to the family who entered the world during ‘lock down’ and you haven’t been able to meet them in person until now.

What a fantastic Christmas you guys will have.

Remember those coffee catchups you used to have before COVID struck? Where friends gathered to check on each other – the coffee was just the excuse for the gathering. Now we can reinstate those gatherings and I encourage you all to start physically checking on friends (you can still use the’ coffee catchup’ as an excuse). And besides – its Christmas.

What a shame the COVID restrictions (and airline change, to a degree) meant that we had to reschedule our 2021 Norfolk Island Reunion and AGM. I was really looking forward to catching up those booked to attend. But not to worry – the UNOPAA Reunion and AGM has now been rescheduled to October 2022 and – yes – it will be on Norfolk Island. For those who wanted to go this year but were hesitant to book due to COVID restrictions etc, now is your opportunity to book for 2022. Book as soon as possible to ensure accommodation is available. As you can be aware, Norfolk Island accommodation for October 2022 is filling fast due to the number of tourists that have had to rebook due to the restrictions this year.

So contact Christan at Norfolk Island Travel on christan@travelcentre.nf or telephone 1800 1400 66 (AUS) (free call). Come and join the 80+ others who have already booked.

In this issue of ‘True Blue’ we have a fairly diverse number of articles. The inclusion of the ‘Around the Missions’ section in the last issue seemed to have been received well and I have continued with this segment in this issue. There is a hard-hitting article from David Savage on Afghanistan in this segment.

Barry Urban has made the news again (for all the wrong reasons) – see the ABC’s article. The minutes from our 2021 AGM are also included you’re your information. Plus, there’s a bit of trivia, historical articles and (of course) funnies curtesy of Hewan O’Neill and even a recipe.

I hope you enjoy this issue of ‘True Blue’. Remember – make contact with your family and friends and ask RUOK. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year. The National Executive look forward to catching up with many of you in Norfolk Island next year.

Rod Walker Editor True Blue

The King of Spain has been quarantined on his private jet. That means the reign in Spain stays mainly on the plane 4

True Blue December 2021

Outcomes of the 2021 UNOPAA Annual General Meeting The 2021 Annual General Meeting of UNOPAA was held on 21 October 2021.

Due to COVID-19, attendance was by teleconference only.

The following is a summary of the outcomes and matters discussed: PRESIDENT’S REPORT Mick Travers provided an overview of UNOPAA’s activities since the last AGM. Pandemic restrictions had restricted many of our activities including our full participation in events such as Anzac Day, United Nations Day, UN Peacekeepers Day in September and Australian Peacekeeper’s Day in May. The National Executive was disappointed that our Norfolk Island Reunion, planned for October 2021, could not proceed as planned. It had looked promising for a while, however the decision by Air New Zealand to suspend their operations to the island, coupled with the ever-changing travel restrictions due to Covid across Australia, made a postponement almost inevitable. So, it was decided to defer the reunion for 12 months, when hopefully the situation will be greatly improved.

On the positive side, Commissioner Reece Kershaw of the AFP had accepted UNOPAA’s invitation to become our Patron. Given his background and service in East Timor, this was welcome news. An article about his appointment was published in the August 2021 of True Blue.

ELECTION OF OFFICER BEARERS The National Executive was returned unopposed, that is: • President – Mick Travers • Vice Presidents – Dale Cooper & Rod Walker • Secretary/Treasurer – Peter McDonald Mark Elm will continue as National Research Officer, and in keeping with usual practice our National Committee will comprise the National Executive and each of our State/Territory Presidents.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MINUTES Peter McDonald advised that, at the 2020 AGM, it was agreed to amend our Constitution to expand UNOPAA’s membership criteria. This had since been effected and advice published in True Blue and on the UNOPAA website.

We had also advised that UNOPAA had written to the Timor-Leste Ambassador in Australia asking that

eligibility for the Timor-Leste Solidarity Medal (TLSM), which had been awarded to Australian Police who had served as peacekeepers from 2006-12, be extended to also cover the periods from 1999-2005, and from 2013 onwards. A follow-up letter has been sent, however a response has yet to be received.

Finally, Mick Travers had informed the AGM that the AFP had commenced an internal project looking at bravery awards for UNAMET personnel (that is, police deployed to East Timor during the lead up and conduct of the independence vote from June to September 1999). A number of recommendations have now been made to the Australian Bravery Decorations Council.

SECRETARY’S REPORT FINANCE In 2020-21, UNOPAA had income of $7,319 (mainly membership fees and revenue from the production of True Blue) and expenditure of $6,439. A profit of $880.

Our total assets at year’s end, including a term deposit and a small amount of merchandise, was $40,603.

Our revenue has dropped due to the change of True Blue to an on-line publication. A number of efficiencies have been necessary because of it.

A summary of UNOPAA’s financial report will be submitted to the NSW Office of Fair Trading in accordance with our statutory obligations as an incorporated association.

WELFARE Sadly, a further 12 members passed away during the year. This reflects our ageing membership, particularly among our Cyprus veterans.

Of the 483 police who served in Cyprus with the first 12 contingents, 269 (or 55%) are known to be deceased.

30 are “whereabouts unknown”.

From conversations with our members, it’s apparent that many are not in good health. In fact, some are quite seriously ill. Our best wishes to all of them, and many thanks to their wives and families for the support they are providing.

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True Blue December 2021

CORRESPONDENCE A number of issues were pursued during the year.

Without much progress, unfortunately.

Government Response to the Productivity Committee Report A Better Way to Support Veterans The Productivity Commission Report in 2019 made a number of recommendations which, if adopted, would impact our members rights under the Veterans Entitlement Act 1986 (VEA). Two proposed to limit future eligibility for DVA Gold Cards, but have rejected by the government. The other proposed to close off all future claims for entitlements under the VEA from 2025 (or thereabouts) – with one exception, police peacekeepers.

We wrote to then Minister for Veterans Affairs (Darren Chester) asking for advice on the government’s attitude to this recommendation. His response was noncommittal but did state he had asked “DVA to ensure channels remain open with relevant stakeholders in the veteran and ex-service community”.

We haven’t heard from DVA so don’t, as yet, know what’s happening with it. We are concerned to ensure that, if the recommendation is adopted, the exception for police peacekeepers is retained.

Unlawful Wearing of Australian Honours After Barry Urban MP (a former police officer in Western Australia) was found to be wearing a Police Overseas Service Medal (POSM) to which he was not entitled, we wrote to the Prime Minister (as the Minister responsible for the Australian Honours System) asking that it be made a criminal offence (as it is for the wearing of military honours).

In February 2021, we received a response from the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister (Ben Morton) to say: “The Australian Government believes that the overwhelming majority of Australians disapprove of individuals who wear medals from the Australian honours system that they are not entitled to. The Government is satisfied that the community will make its own judgement against those who dishonour legitimate medal recipients.

As such, the Government has no plans to introduce legislative penalties in relation to this.”

In other words, no legislative change. If we hear of any other cases – in addition to Barry Urban – we’ll try again.

Health & Well-being UNOPAA has put forward a number of proposals to improve the health and entitlements of our members.

In November 2020, we wrote to the Secretary of DVA proposing that an Australian Police Peacekeepers’ Health Audit be conducted as part of DVA’s Strategic Research Framework. She rejected the request, but in her response said: “The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has previously commissioned research on Peacekeepers’ health, covering veterans of deployments on United Nations sanctioned missions to Rwanda, Somalia,

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Cambodia, Namibia, Western Sahara and East Timor over the period 1989-2002. This study examined the long-term effect of peacekeeping on the mental and physical health status, health service use and quality of life of veterans. The findings show that 65% of peacekeepers reported they were in good, very good or excellent health. However, 30% had at least one diagnosable mental health condition, similar to the broader veteran community. Although this study did not specifically cover police peacekeepers, it would be reasonable to extrapolate these findings to all peacekeepers involved in those missions.”

(The underlining is ours) DVA have since released a Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and National Action Plan 202023 which includes a number of initiatives to improve the mental health and well-being of veterans and their families, and their engagement with the services offered.

Not all of these initiatives are relevant to UNOPAA. But many are. For example, access to Veteran Wellbeing Centres, DVA’s Wellbeing and Support Program, NonLiability Health Care and broader use of White Cards.

So, we’ve written back to the Secretary of DVA, referring to her response, and asking how we can engage with DVA to ensure these programs and initiatives are made available to our members.

Eligibility for DVA Grants DVA operates a number of grants programs which they make available through the Community Grants Hub. In the past, we have benefited from Saluting Their Service grants for projects such as our Darwin Reunion, the Honour Board at the Goulburn Police Academy, and the 20th Anniversary of Australian Police Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor.

Following a recent application for Grant-In-Aid funding, we noted that the DVA guidelines for most of them (thankfully not the Saluting Their Service grants) have been gradually tightened so they are only available to Ex-Service Organisations (ESOs) as defined (for the purpose of the grant guidelines) by the Ex-Service Organisation Round Table (ESORT), which DVA convenes. This limits eligibility to organisations linked to the ADF. Obviously, this is not satisfactory to UNOPAA. So, we have written yet again to the Secretary of DVA pointing out that many of our members fall under the VEA, and asking that DVA: • Recognise UNOPAA as an Ex-Service Organisation (ESO); • Include us as a member of the Ex-Service Organisation Round Table (ESORT); and • Advise us what other Grant Opportunities are available to us if the current restrictions remain.

The letter has only just been sent. We’re awaiting a response.

True Blue December 2021

OTHER MATTERS At a previous AGM, UNOPAA agreed to look at establishing Grave Site Memorials for the Six (6) Australian Police who have died on Overseas Peacekeeping Missions.

peacekeeper’s logo, suitable for placement on the memorial? And on what occasions, in addition to the usual, should a flag be flown – on Peacekeepers Days for example? Dale Cooper undertook to look at these issues in conjunction with Whiskey.

We submitted a request for funding in 2020 under the Saluting Their Service Grant Program, but it was assessed as being outside the scope of the program. So we are now looking at other funding options, including the DVA program that places plaques on the graves of those who have served overseas with the military.

Dale Cooper (ACT) spoke of the steps he intended to take to re-establish the ACT Branch. Owing to Covid, progress had been slow, but an important action had been the acquisition of a new UNOPAA banner for use during ceremonies and events both in the ACT and nationally.

At the AGM, it was suggested that we should also look at donations from members. Peter McDonald undertook to pursue this option if our other efforts were unsuccessful.

OTHER BUSINESS

A number of police jurisdictions have honour boards and other displays recognising the service of their police who have served on peacekeeping and humanitarian missions overseas. The Honour Boards at the Victoria Police Academy are the most recent example. Peter McDonald suggested that UNOPAA look at expanding this so all jurisdictions are covered.

His suggestion was discussed and it was agreed that UNOPAA look at it in conjunction with our State and Territory Branches.

ACTIVITIES OF THE STATE & TERRITORY BRANCHES Each of the State and Territory Presidents present spoke of the activities undertaken over the past 12 months in their jurisdiction.

Shaun Young (VIC/TAS) advised that, due to lockdown in Melbourne, they had not held a meeting for some time. However, he had been in discussion with a retired Victoria Police officer who was looking to erect an honour board for Vietnam Veterans at the Victoria Police Academy and was seeking advice on how to go about it. He also spoke of his involvement in a successful application for the award of a Victoria Police Star to a member suffering serious health issues from his overseas service while on secondment to the AFP but still an employee of VicPol. Mark Elm (NSW) also spoke of the impact of Covid on their branch activities. He was anxious to pursue a number of the issues mentioned in the Secretary’s Report, particularly the mental health and well-being of our younger members and the proper recognition of their service. He was also looking at an extension of the honour wall at the NSW Police Academy as it recognises service in Cyprus but not on other missions.

John (Whiskey) Walker (QLD) advised that he had recently moved into an over 50’s lifestyle village where a number of military veterans were looking at establishing a memorial. He had successfully approached them to include police and civilian peacekeepers, but it raised a number of questions. Is there an Australian

ROYAL COMMISSION INTO DEFENCE AND VETERAN SUICIDE Nick Kaldas spoke of his appointment as the Chair of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, established in July 2021.

He had listened to the issues raised during the AGM and many were similar to those being raised with the Royal Commission. While its terms of reference relate to defence and defence force veterans, he invited UNOPAA to put forward a submission.

It was agreed that this should be progressed by UNOPAA, as a priority, through its National Executive.

Nick Kaldas is a former NSW Police Deputy Commissioner, who has served in senior roles with the United Nations in Lebanon, Syria, and the Middle East.

He is also a member of UNOPAA.

NORFOLK ISLAND REUNION 2022 Dale Cooper provided an update on the revised arrangements for our Norfolk Island Conference and Reunion, now proposed from 21 to 29 October 2022.

Further information will be coming out early in the new year.

Discussions have been taking place with Norfolk Island Travel and it is likely that accommodation choices will change and some prices may increase. However, the conference agenda will be largely unchanged.

Further advice on the reunion will be published in the December 2021 Edition of True Blue.

A copy of the Minutes of the 2021 Annual General Meeting will be published in due course on our website. Any queries or comments should be directed to Peter McDonald.

Peter McDonald National Secretary/Treasurer

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True Blue December 2021

Disgraced Labor MP Barry Urban remanded in custody after lying to WA Parliament Disgraced former WA politician Barry Urban has been remanded in custody while he awaits being sentenced for forging university qualifications and repeatedly lying about his supposed police and military service.

Urban, 52, sensationally quit as the member for Darling Range in 2018 after he was found to have deliberately misled the WA Parliament’s powerful Procedure and Privileges committee.

The committee recommended that Urban, who had been elected as the Labor member the year before, be expelled but he resigned the day before its report was tabled.

He was charged in September 2018 with forging educational documents, including a degree from a UK university, and deliberately giving false evidence to the committee.

He initially pleaded not guilty, however, he later changed his pleas to guilty, and faced a sentencing hearing in the District Court this morning (29 October 2021).

State Prosecutor Benjamin Stanwix said Urban’s lies dated back to 2001 when he falsely claimed in an employment application to the WA Police Force that in 1994, he had obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Leeds.

Barry Urban.

“He is really an incorrigible liar ... (he was applying for) important roles where honesty and integrity is central and he repeatedly lied,”

He also falsely claimed he had a certificate of higher education from Portsmouth University.

– State Prosecutor Benjamin Stanwix

The court was told Urban also falsely claimed in other applications that he had reached the rank of Sergeant in the UK police force, and that he had been seconded to investigate war crimes in Bosnia — none of which was true.

“He is really an incorrigible liar ... (he was applying for) important roles where honesty and integrity is central and he repeatedly lied,” Mr Stanwix said.

A medal he claimed he was awarded in Bosnia was actually bought online.

Urban’s barrister Mark Trowell QC submitted that his client should receive a suspended jail term, arguing he had now lost everything, including his house, his wife and his reputation.

Despite his lies being exposed in the media after he was elected to Parliament, Urban repeated them when he was called before the Procedure and Privileges committee.

Mr Trowell said Urban had been living in a van at Leighton Beach and had jokingly said this morning he was happy to face imprisonment because he would not have to live there anymore.

Mr Stanwix has urged Judge Carmel Barbagallo to impose an immediate jail term, arguing any other sentence would fall short of reflecting the seriousness of the offences.

It was also revealed Urban had attempted suicide and had been hospitalised for depression.

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“His reputation is trashed. He was caught in such a public and humiliating way,” Mr Trowell said.

True Blue December 2021

Mr Trowell also likened his client’s actions to the fictional character Walter Mitty, saying he lied because he wanted to portray himself as who he wanted to be.

The Secret Life of Water Mitty is based on an ordinary man who daydreams about being a hero in various scenarios, such as a surgeon and air-force pilot, when in fact he is living a mundane existence.

Judge Barbagallo said she needed time to consider what penalty to impose and she adjourned Urban’s sentencing for a fortnight.

He had been on bail, but Judge Barbagallo remanded him in custody today.

Source: ABC News 29 October 2021 Story by Joanna Menagh.

Photographs by (ABC News: Hugh Sando) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-29/ disgraced-former-wa-mp-barry-urban-behindbars/100579380?utm_campaign=abc_news_ web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_ shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

Medals Urban claimed he was awarded for overseas police service were actually bought online. (Facebook: Barry Urban MLA)

An old newspaper article from 1918 showing a list of “do’s and don’ts” for preventing the Spanish Flu – looks painfully familiar My favourite is this one: “Do not disregard the advice of a specialist just because you do not understand”.

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True Blue December 2021

Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was established on 8 July 2021. Under the Letters Patent, the Royal Commissioners are required to produce an interim report by 11 August 2022 and a final report by 15 June 2023.

The Letters Patent set out the Royal Commissioners’ terms of reference.

Royal Commissioners MR NICK KALDAS APM (CHAIR) Nick Kaldas held two of the most senior roles in the New South Wales Police Force executive (Sydney, NSW), serving as Deputy Commissioner for almost a decade and, prior to that, Assistant Commissioner (Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics). He relieved as Commissioner of Police extensively. His career as a NSW Police Officer spanned almost 35 years, primarily in major and organised crime investigations, and counter-terrorism, with over a decade in homicide investigations. He also served in a number of senior roles within the United Nations system and led the UN investigations into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri, and into the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict. He was a member of numerous Government committees, at State and national levels. He is Egyptian-born, and fluent in Arabic and partially in French.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Multicultural NSW; a member of the Board of Police Bank; a member of the Advisory Board of Holdmark Construction; a member of the Board of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability; a member of the Board of Trustees, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Sydney and Affiliated Regions; and a member of the Independent Steering Committee, Operation Kenova (Scotland Yard re-investigation of a number of murders committed during the troubles in Northern Ireland).

Commissioner Kaldas holds a Masters’ Degree in Public Policy and Administration and is a graduate of the FBI’s Hostage Negotiation Program, their Leadership in Counter Terrorism Program, and the FBI National Executive Institute, the peak program for law enforcement executives. He has received numerous awards, including the Australian Police Medal, the National Medal, the Overseas Humanitarian Service Medal, and numerous commendations for outstanding performance of duty in Australia and overseas.

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He holds Adjunct Professorships with Western Sydney University (WSU) and Charles Sturt University in Australia and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by WSU. He is an Industry Professor with University of Technology Sydney. He has lectured intermittently at the National Security College of the Australian National University. He was a member of the Australian National Counter Terrorism Committee for eight years, the peak policy body dealing with Counter Terrorism in Australia. He is a Senior Fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the largest think tank in Australia. His consulting company, Kaldas and Associates, primarily advises on security, governance and related issues.

Commissioner Kaldas will take no part in any inquiry (if there is one) into any of the organisations mentioned above.

True Blue December 2021

THE HON JAMES DOUGLAS QC

DR PEGGY BROWN AO

James Douglas was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland from 2003 until his retirement in 2020.

He holds degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Queensland and a postgraduate Bachelor of Laws (1976) from Cambridge University. In 1972 he served as associate to his father, the Honourable Justice James Douglas, and later to the Right Honourable Sir Harry Gibbs GCMG KBE AC (1973–74).

Peggy Brown is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), a member of the RANZCP Section on Leadership and Management, a member of the RANZCP Military, Veterans’ and Emergency Services Personnel Mental Health Network (MVESPMHN) and also of the RANZCP ADHD Network.

He was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1973 and, after completing his studies at Cambridge in 1976, commenced practice at the bar in 1977. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1989. He served as president (1999–2001) of the Bar Association of Queensland. As a member of the Supreme Court he chaired the Rules Committee and the Streamlining Criminal Justice Committee.

Outside the law, Commissioner Douglas has been Chairman of the Queensland Theatre Company (1990–1996); Chairman of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra Advisory Board (1989–1996); president of the Alliance Française de Brisbane Inc (2005–2010); a member of the Senate of the Australian Catholic University (2013 to date); and president of the Order of Malta Australia (2019 to date). He is married with two adult children.

Commissioner Douglas will take no part in any inquiry (if there is one) into the ACU’s Student Veterans Support Program or the Order of Malta’s support for homeless veterans.

She is currently appointed as a Member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She was previously contracted by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in relation to the conduct of two reviews: Review of Trauma Recovery Program, and Review of the WellBeing and Support Program. She was a member of the DVA Chief Health Officer’s Mental Health Expert Advisory Group from February to July 2021 and was engaged by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to provide strategic support and advice; and to chair the Expert Advisory Group for the Independent Qualitative Review of Past Defence and Veteran Suicides being conducted by the ACSQHC on behalf of the Interim National Commissioner on Defence and Veteran Suicides.

Commissioner Brown was the Chief Executive Officer at the National Mental Health Commission when it conducted the Review of Suicide and Self-Harm Services for Current and Former Members of the Australian Defence Force and their Families in 2016–17.

Her husband was a member of the Australian Army from 1976 to 1985, and the ADF Reserves from 1986 to 1987.

Neither Commissioner Brown nor her husband receive any ongoing financial or other supports relating to this past employment.

Commissioner Brown will not contribute to any submission or appearance (if there is one) before the Royal Commission by the RANZCP or any of its Faculties, Sections or Networks. She will take no part in any inquiry (if there is one) into pharmaceutical products available to current and former members of the Australian Defence Force via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

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True Blue December 2021

Terms of reference The Commissioners are appointed to be a Commission of inquiry, and required and authorised to inquire into the following matters: a. systemic issues and any common themes among defence and veteran deaths by suicide, or defence members and veterans who have other lived experience of suicide behaviour or risk factors (including attempted or contemplated suicide, feelings of suicide or poor mental health outcomes); b. a systemic analysis of the contributing risk factors relevant to defence and veteran death by suicide, including the possible contribution of pre-service, service (including training and deployments), transition, separation, and post-service issues, such as the following: i. the manner or time in which the defence member or veteran was recruited to the [the Australian Defence Force (the ADF)]; ii. the relevance, if any, of the particular branch, service or posting history, or the rank of the defence member or veteran; iii. the manner or time in which the defence member or veteran transitioned from the ADF or transitioned between service categories; iv. the availability, accessibility, timeliness and quality of health, wellbeing and support services (including mental health support services) to the defence member or veteran, and the effectiveness of such services; v. the manner and extent to which information about the defence member or veteran is held by and shared within and between different government entities; vi. the reporting and recording of information, relevant to the mental and physical health of defence members and veterans, at enlistment and during and after service; c. the impact of culture within the ADF, the Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on defence members’ and veterans’ physical and mental wellbeing; d. the role of non-government organisations, including ex-service organisations, in providing relevant services and support for defence members, veterans, their families and others;

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e. protective and rehabilitative factors for defence members and veterans who have lived experience of suicide behaviour or risk factors; f. any systemic issues in the current availability and effectiveness of support services for, and in the engagement with, families and others: i. affected by a defence and veteran death by suicide; or ii. who have supported a defence member or veteran with lived experience of suicide behaviour or risk factors; g. any systemic issues in the nature of defence members’ and veterans’ engagement with the Department of Defence, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs or other Commonwealth, State or Territory government entities (including those acting on behalf of those entities) about support services, claims or entitlements relevant to defence and veteran deaths by suicide or relevant to defence members and veterans who have other lived experience of suicide behaviour or risk factors, including any systemic issues in engaging with multiple government entities; h. the legislative and policy frameworks, administered by the Department of Defence, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and other Commonwealth, State or Territory government entities, relating to the support services, claims and entitlements referred to in paragraph (g); i. any systemic risk factors contributing to defence and veteran death by suicide, including the following: i. defence members’ and veterans’ social or family contexts; ii. housing or employment issues for defence members and veterans; iii. defence members’ and veterans’ economic and financial circumstances; j. any matter reasonably incidental to a matter referred to in paragraphs (a) to (i) or that [the Commissioners] believe is reasonably relevant to [their] inquiry.

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A message to everyone in the Defence and Veteran communities My name is Nick Kaldas and I am the Chair of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

I am writing to you to let you know who we are at the Royal Commission and what we hope to achieve as we deliver on the very important task that we have been set.

As you may know, on 8 July 2021 the Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), issued Letters Patent which established the Royal Commission.

I and my fellow Commissioners, the Hon James Douglas QC and Dr Peggy Brown AO, will produce an interim report by 11 August 2022 and a final report by 15 June 2023. Our terms of reference are broad, and we are empowered to investigate a wide range of issues, themes and factors.

And to do this we need your help and your stories, so that we can learn as much as we can about the issues and situations surrounding the deaths by suicide of defence personnel and veterans.

We want to hear, learn and then act, informed by your accounts and your experiences.

We will also review previous inquiries and research, as well as look at experiences in other comparable countries.

We will do our best to ensure that everyone, including individuals, family members, communities, organisations and their members, are supported to tell their stories. There will be a variety of ways in which this can be done: written submissions, private sessions, public hearings, and more.

We will support you with counsellors, if you need that as you engage with our process, and we will work to ensure that your own support networks, including health and family networks, are there to assist you, as they are best placed to know what works for you.

As we are currently in the establishment phase of staffing-up the Royal Commission with a group of dedicated people who will assist us to deliver on our important task, we appreciate your patience as we get things underway.

We will periodically post updates on the activities of the Royal Commission on our website.

However, to ensure you are kept up to date with the latest on the Royal Commission activities, please go to our website defenceveteransuicide.royalcommission.gov.au and sign up to receive our regular email updates.

I look forward to working with you to ensure lessons are learned that will prevent future deaths by suicide.

Yours sincerely Nick Kaldas APM 26 August 2021

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Ms. Unaisi Bolatolu-Vuniwaqa, who also served in the Solomon Islands under RAMSI, was the first woman to be appointed as Police Commissioner of the world’s largest peacekeeping mission, UNMISS.

UNMISS Farewells Police Commissioner With emotion shining in her eyes, Fijian National and the first woman to be appointed as Police Commissioner of the world’s largest peacekeeping mission, UNMISS, Ms. Unaisi Bolatolu-Vuniwaqa watched with pride as her police officers marched in tight formation before her in a special parade of honour to bid farewell to their leader.

It has been a long and challenging journey for the first female Police Commissioner to serve with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, having risen rapidly in the past five years from an Individual Police Officer to Deputy Police Commissioner and then the top job.

“My 35-year police career, although challenging, has been the most exciting and enjoyable experience.

The last five years with UNMISS has been the peak of resilience, hard work, and dedication, the result of which I will treasure for the rest of my life,” she told the crowd of senior police officers who gathered for her final day.

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When Unaisi Bolatolu-Vuniwaqa was appointed, South Sudan was beginning a difficult transition from war to peace and recovery. At that time, UN Police were responsible for providing safety and security for more than 200,000 displaced families living in protection sites next to UN bases across the country.

She has made a significant contribution to the transition of almost all of those sites to conventional displacement camps under the responsibility and protection of the Government of South Sudan.

“My heartfelt gratitude goes to the InspectorGeneral of the South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) for endorsing the collaboration between

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UNPOL and the local police that has manifested in the safe handing over of the role of policing in the redesignated protection sites, the training of SSNPS officers and other significant UNPOL programmes that have delivered concrete outcomes now and into the future,” she said.

“You have given exemplary service and contributed to the protection of people across South Sudan as well as building the capacity of our host police force to be professional, accountable and trusted. We may not have fully achieved all that needs to be done, but we must take heart from the milestones we have achieved today.”

Her senior officers paid tribute to her efforts to support them, the peacekeeping mission, and the people of South Sudan.

The Commissioner urged her UNPOL colleagues to continue to be champions for gender parity and expressed her pride that UNMISS has the highest number of female police officers of all peacekeeping missions, with women comprising 35 percent of Individual Police Officers and 20 percent of Formed Police Units.

“She has made a distinguished and extraordinary contribution towards the progress of mandate implementation in South Sudan,” said UNMISS Police Chief of Operations, Francis Yiribaare.

“She’s a woman of calibre who has touched all of us, police officers and senior management, and had an overarching effect on the entire Mission.”

The Police Commissioner said she felt honoured and privileged to have served with all UN police, military, and civilian personnel working to protect civilians and build peace in South Sudan.

“I would not have excelled in my capacity as your Commissioner if it wasn’t for your unwavering support in the delivery of our UNPOL mandate,” she told her officers.

Today’s occasion was particularly poignant for Unaisi Bolatolu-Vuniwaqa. Not only does it mark the end of her service with UNMISS but also her retirement from the Fiji Police Force.

“As I fold my police uniform for the final time at the end of the day, I will cherish the thought of my family who have been constant throughout my life,” she said. “My husband, children and support network have supported me wholeheartedly in my quest to break ceilings in my career and made my achievements possible as a working mum and more.”

Source: https://unmiss.unmissions.org/

We all want to know the correct way to make ANZAC Biscuits Published by The Country Women’s Association 1981

1914 ANZAC BISCUITS First judged in 1981 Makes: 40-50 biscuits 190g rolled oats 150g plain flour 165g sugar 125g butter, cubed

1 large rounded tablespoon golden syrup 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 2 tablespoons hot water

1. Preheat oven to 160˚C (315˚F/Gas 2-3). Grease two baking trays.

2. Mix together the oats, flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter and golden syrup together, add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in the hot water. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well.

3. Roll into balls the size of a walnut (or a 10-cent piece) and place on the prepared trays. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Move biscuit positions while hot. Allow to cool and crisp on tray.

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True Blue December 2021

Minister Gee’s address on Australian Peacekeeper Day Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to be able to join you this morning to mark this very significant occasion.

I thank the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association for inviting me to this year’s commemoration of Australian Peacekeeper Day. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions preventing us from holding a service in Canberra, I’m grateful we can nevertheless come together through this special video service.

I wish to acknowledge the Chair of the Association, Rob Woods, and Vice President Ian Lindgren, who are both tireless advocates for veterans.

I also acknowledge Matt Anderson, the Director of the Australian War Memorial, Padre Steve Neuhaus, who is the honorary Chaplain of the Association, Dale Cooper, who is representing the United Nations Overseas Policing Association of Australia, and also Kris Milne, the communications manager of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association.

I also acknowledge any serving members of the ADF and also our veterans who are present today.

The work of the Association is vitally important and it’s appreciated not only by veterans and their families, but also the Australian Government.

Australia will never forget our peacekeepers and peacemakers or the sixteen Australians who have lost their lives on peacekeeping operations. Australia owes them all a great debt of gratitude.

As we know, today is the 74th anniversary of Australia’s first deployment on a peacekeeping operation.

Our history of peacekeeping is a very proud one. Australians were the world’s very first peacekeepers to be deployed into the field, and that was

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part of a mission to the Netherlands East Indies in 1947, and since that time, our military personnel, civilians and police officers have deployed to more than 60 countries on 70 operations.

The tasks that they have been engaged in are incredibly diverse, ranging from clearing land mines, training personnel, facilitating humanitarian aid and maintaining peace during elections.

The 1990s were particularly busy years in the history of multinational peacekeeping. Royal Australian Navy ships, for the first time, took part in a peacekeeping operation enforcing UN imposed sanctions against Iraq before and after the 1991 Gulf War. In 1993, over two thousand Australian peacekeepers were in the field with contingents deployed to Cambodia and Somalia. In 1994–95 Australians also served in Rwanda. Then, in 1999, Australian Federal Police deployed to East Timor as part of a UN force known as UNAMET, the United Nations Mission in East Timor, to oversee East Timor’s referendum on independence from Indonesia.

And then, in September 1999, Australia led, for the first time ever, an international peacekeeping force, INTERFET, the International Force in East Timor to help restore peace and begin the work of reconstruction in that new nation. 5,500 from the three services served on that mission. It was the first and only time Australia led an international peacekeeping operation, and it was extraordinarily successful.

Our peacekeeping efforts continue to the present day. Australia has people deployed on overseas operations, including in South Sudan, Mali and the Middle East.

It takes a special type of person to serve a cause greater than oneself, and it’s important that the stories of

our peacekeepers and peacemakers are recognised, shared and treasured.

Private Miles Wootten was a peacekeeper in the Australian Army who served in Rwanda. He wants the stories of peacekeepers told.

He said this: “To the people who think peacekeepers don’t belong, I say talk to the peacekeepers, find out their stories, don’t just write them off as every medal tells a story.”

At the age of 21, Miles, along with 600 Australians was deployed to Rwanda as part of Operation Tamar.

For Miles, the deployment to this war torn country would change his life forever. He, along with so many of our troops, saw the horror of genocide, the unspeakable atrocities, the violence and the slaughter.

He vividly remembers travelling to the Kibeho refugee camp for the first time. He said this: “We came over a rise and there were a million people, I stopped and I looked at my co-driver and said, so that’s what a million people looks like. You can’t describe the sights, the sounds, the smells of a million people, a million people on top of each other.”

Despite the untold horrors and devastation that Miles and other

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Australians witnessed in Rwanda, he and all Australians who served there as well as their families know that their service made a real difference to those people. And just like so many other Australians who’ve served as peacekeepers and peacemakers, he would not flinch at doing it all again.

Miles would do so, even though it meant that he would miss so many important milestones in the life that he shared with his family, as he says of his time: “I missed my first wedding anniversary, my family’s first Christmas and my daughter’s first birthday. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat. These people had nothing, they were eating bark off trees and grass from the ground, but I’d gladly go back, I’d gladly do my time over everything that we went through and all that we did to help those kids who had lost everything and let them know that someone cares.”

This is the story of courage, of compassion, discipline and dedication, which is the hallmark of our peacekeepers and peacemakers.

The legacy that Miles and all the Australian peacekeepers left behind in Rwanda still burns brightly to this day.

The lasting impact of Australia’s mission there transformed the life of Theogene Ngamije. He was a young boy who was separated from his parents in a refugee camp.

Theogene recounts being saved by an Australian soldier. He says: “He lifted me up and put me on his shoulder and took me to safety where the other kids were. He saved me and gave me a different understanding of what soldiers do. I hope to one day serve as a peacekeeper because I know how it feels and how it can change people’s lives.”

That young boy is now a man and he was to become a private in the Australian Army.

I think it says a lot about our nation that despite our relatively small population, tens of thousands of Australians have served as peacekeepers and peacemakers.

Wherever they’ve been deployed, they have earned the respect of the international community and have helped to restore peace and bring hope to countries blighted by war and conflict.

Peacekeeping and peacemaking is an extraordinarily high calling.

Service above self, service to country, service that goes to the very essence of our humanity.

May we never forget our peacekeepers and peacemakers.

Long may they continue to make our region and our world a safer and better place.

The Hon Andrew Gee MP Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Minister for Defence Personnel

The Secretary-General’s message on United Nations Day 2021 Seventy-six years ago, the United Nations was created as a vehicle of hope for a world emerging from the shadow of catastrophic conflict.

Today, the women and men of the UN carry this hope forward around the globe.

COVID-19, conflicts, hunger, poverty and the climate emergency remind us that our world is far from perfect.

But they also make clear that solidarity is the only way forward.

We need to come together to tackle great challenges and advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

By ensuring that every person, everywhere, has access to COVID-19 vaccines sooner rather than later.

By securing and upholding the rights and dignity of all people — especially the poorest and most

disadvantaged, girls and women, and children and young people.

By seeking an end to the conflicts that scar our world.

By making bold climate commitments to save our planet — and living up to them.

And by building global governance that is more inclusive, networked and effective — as detailed in my recent report, Our Common Agenda.

The values that have powered the UN Charter for the last 76 years — peace, development, human rights, and opportunity for all — have no expiry date.

As we mark UN Day, let’s unite behind these ideals, and live up to the full promise, potential and hope of the United Nations.

António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations

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United Nations Day 2021 – Canberra Due to COVID-19 “Lockdown” restrictions still in place in the ACT on United Nations Day (24 October) the usual commemoration ceremony was replaced by a shortened service attended by the ACT Branch President (Dale Cooper), the ACT Branch Vice President (Rod Walker) and the President of the AFP Retired Members Association (David Savage). Dale’s wife (Helen) also attended and photographed the occasion for us.

A big ‘Thankyou’ to Helen.

The service was held at the Australian Peacekeepers Memorial on ANZAC Parade, Canberra.

Although short in duration, the service was solemn and pointed.

The UN Secretary General’s Message for UN Day 2021 was imparted by Dale followed by the ‘Beatitudes’ (Matthew 5: 1-12) delivered by Rod, then the Police Ode recited by Dave. A wreath was laid (on behalf of the UNOPAA), followed by the playing of the Police Requiescat and a minutes’ silence.

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True Blue December 2021

Around the Missions Remembering Sergeant Ian Ward

p 20

UNPOL in action

p 21

UNFICYP bids farewell to Gregory Koupparis after 40 years of service for peace

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UN Security Council condemns Turkish move to reopen Cyprus ghost town Varosha p 23

What’s happening in Timor Leste?

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500 plus police officers will be involved in lockdown operation in Honiara

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Aola community impressed with new police station

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68 RSIPF recruits graduate as police constables p 28 RSIPF farewells SIPDP advisors

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Taliban reopens schools in Afghanistan for boys only and repurposes women’s affairs ministry

p 31

War Crimes Investigator’s journey through Hell and back as world wakes up to reality of Afghanistan

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True Blue December 2021

Remembering Sergeant Ian Ward

The following was received from Detective Sergeant Paul Beath who was provided with these photographs by His Excellency Sam Beever, Australian High Commissioner, Nicosia, Cyprus.

These photographs clearly illustrate his Excellency’s and the High Commission’s, ongoing support for the remembrance of Sgt Ward, his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all the Australian Police who served in Cyprus.

The presentation also supports the work undertaken by those in 2019 to reconstitute the memorial.

Our President (Mick Travers) has passed these images onto Sgt Ward’s sisters and NSW Police.

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Around the Missions

Around the Missions

True Blue December 2021

UNPOL in action VISIT TO LINOU POLICE STATION On 10 August, UNFICYP’s Force Commander Major General Ingrid Gjerde, UNPOL’ Senior Police Advisor Assistant Police Commissioner Satu Koivu and the Chief of Civil Affairs, Faylene Woolley, visited Linou Police Station for a brief on the situation in the area.

UNFICYP FACILITATES ANNUAL KOKKINA CROSSING FOR PILGRIMAGE On 8 August, UNFICYP Civil Affairs, UNPOL and military component work closely together to facilitate access to United Nations buffer zone during the annual Kokkina crossing in Cyprus.

SENIOR ADVISOR AND SENIOR POLICE ADVISOR VISIT PYLA AND DHERENIYA On 13 July, UNFICYP’ Senior Advisor, Aderemi Adekoya and Senior Police Advisor, Assistant Commissioner, Satu Koivu visited UNPOL officers based in Pyla where they were updated on operational activities inside the United Nations buffer zone. They also visited the village of Dhereniya.

IRELAND’S MINISTER FOR FINANCE VISIT TO UNFICYP On 23 July, Ireland’s Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe met with An Garda Síochána (Irish Police) officers deployed with UNFICYP. Ireland has contributed to UNPOL in Cyprus since 1993; currently, a contingent of 12 police officers is deployed to help maintain peace in the buffer zone.

Source: UNFICYP Blue Beret Magazine (Autumn 2021)

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Around the Missions

UNFICYP bids farewell to Gregory Koupparis after 40 years of service for peace In June, UNFICYP paid farewell to one of its long standing and professional staff. Gregory Koupparis, the Head of Mission’s driver, has retired after serving for 40 years in Cyprus.

Gregory joined the Mission in April 1981 as a lifeguard for two years to then move on to the pest control position and finally to the transport section, where he found himself in the organization and was happy to stay for the rest of his career.

Known by everyone as “Greg”, Gregory was one of the most famous drivers of the many United Nations’ Special Representatives of the SecretaryGeneral (SRSG) who served in Cyprus. For the past 25 years of his professional experience, he worked closely with nine SRSGs, with all of them expressing their gratitude and thanks to the always smiling colleague, who is well-known for his good moral and work ethics.

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On his farewell, his supervisor, Michael Larkin stated: “Greg will be always remembered for his VIP driving, good recollection of people’s names — that is the measure of Greg’s working life, but of course there is much more to Greg than that: A very popular man in the section and absolutely loved by his colleagues.”

Gregory has shown his thanks and gratitude to all team members and colleagues with whom he has interacted with in his tenure. “At UNFICYP I was not only part of a team, but part of a family and here was a space where I learned many things, and this passion for learning will never cease to grow,” said Gregory looking backward at his many years of experience in the Mission and forward to the future where he will spend with his family.

Around the Missions

True Blue December 2021

UN Security Council condemns Turkish move to reopen Cyprus ghost town Varosha The UN Security Council has demanded “the immediate reversal” of a unilateral decision by Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leaders to reopen the island’s abandoned suburb of Varosha.

Once a tourism hub, Varosha has lain empty and mostly fenced-off since the 1974 invasion that split Cyprus.

any action that could “raise tensions on the island and harm prospects for a settlement”.

On Tuesday, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar announced that a 3.5 square kilometre section of the ghost town would revert from military to civilian control.

A 1984 UN Security Council resolution states that any attempt to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants would be “inadmissible”.

Tatar said Greek Cypriots that fled could reclaim their properties through the Immoveable Property Commission (IPC).

Varosha’s 15,000 Greek Cypriot residents fled in the face of advancing Turkish troops in 1974. The area was fenced off until last October when Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities first announced its “re-opening”.

But the move provoked an immediate backlash from Greek Cypriots, who see it as a bid to pressure them into selling off their properties.

On Friday, the UN Security Council issued a presidential statement on the matter, approved by all 15 member states.

“The Security Council condemns the announcement

by Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaders on July 20, 2021, on the further reopening of a part of the fenced-off area of Varosha,” it read.

“The Security Council expresses its deep regret regarding these unilateral actions that run contrary to its previous resolutions and statements.”

It also called for “the immediate reversal of this course of action and the reversal of all steps taken on Varosha since October 2020”, citing the need to avoid

Some Turkish Cypriots have also condemned the move as undermining efforts at reconciliation between the two communities.

Numerous rounds of UN-mediated talks aimed at reuniting Cyprus have ended in failure, with the last push for a peace deal in July 2017 ending in acrimony.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held informal talks with Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders in Geneva in April which also failed to make headway on the island’s future.

Both Turkey’s Erdogan and Turkish Cypriot leader Tatar have said a permanent peace in Cyprus can only come through the international community’s recognition of two separate states.

Source: EURONews - 23 July 2021

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Around the Missions

What’s happening in Timor Leste?

In the past three months Australia has: Delivered a further 157,850 Australian-made COVID-19 vaccines to Timor-Leste, bringing to 227,850 the total number of Australian vaccines we have supplied since May. In response to Timor‑Leste’s request for a vaccination surge, Australia is ramping up supply to enable Timor-Leste to accelerate its vaccination campaign, both in Dili and the municipalities, saving lives and reducing the threat of serious illness and hospitalisation caused by COVID-19. At a time when the global supply of vaccines remains constrained, Australia has committed to sharing up to 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with countries in the Pacific and Timor-Leste so that our region can respond and recover together.

Extended Australia’s PARTISIPA program for another 10 years with an AUD80 million investment in TimorLeste’s National Village Development Program (PNDS). By creating jobs, stimulating local economic activity and building and rehabilitating critical local infrastructure, PNDS is helping to address the economic impacts of COVID-19 and improving living conditions.

Continued to focus on skills and vocational qualifications by establishing the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC) in Timor-Leste. The APTC is already operational in nine countries in the region with Timor-Leste the tenth to join. The APTC will partner with local training institutions to deliver quality training in Timor-Leste that is relevant for employers, both here in Timor-Leste and internationally.

Opened a new purpose-built training facility for the PNTL Special Police Unit (UEP) and joined with Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak and Vice Minister of the Interior Tony Armindo to open a new police post on Atauro Island. The Australian Federal Police, through the Timor-Leste Police Development Program, is supporting the PNTL to enforce border controls and prevent the illegal movement of people and goods.

Through our Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) commenced work on a COVID-19 isolation facility in the border area of Maliana. This follows the earlier successful collaboration by the DCP, F-FDTL and the Ministry of Health to establish an isolation facility in

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Baucau. The Australian Defence Force and the F-FDTL are also finalising plans to conduct our largest annual exercise, Hari’i Hamutuk, which will start in August and focuses on building engineering capacity.

Launched a new public private partnership Australia’s Ambassador to – Orijem Timor – Timor Leste – H.E Peter Roberts connecting Timorese coffee farmers and exporters with new markets overseas. This Business Partnerships Platform initiative will support 1,000 households including women to earn more income by producing specialty high-value coffee for global markets.

Welcomed the arrival of the largest delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to Timor-Leste. 300,000 doses arrived from Australia last week in response to Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak’s request for a vaccination surge. Australia has now shared more than 577,000 vaccines with Timor-Leste with further deliveries planned in line with our commitment to ensure sufficient supply to fully vaccinate everyone not covered by COVAX. Joined with Defence Minister Filomeno Paixão de Jesus, Health Minister Dr Odete Maria Freitas Belo and F-FDTL Chief Lieutenant-General Lere Anan Timur to open a new COVID-19 isolation facility in the border area of Maliana. Australia’s Defence Cooperation Program worked with the F-FDTL and the Ministry of Health to refurbish the facility which will enable the care of patients while also protecting the community.

Strengthened security measures at the border by completing two further police border posts through the Timor-Leste Police Development Program. These selfsustainable posts at Amin Matan and Fatululik, together with further supplies of tents, stretchers and sleeping bags, enhance the PNTL’s Border Patrol Unit’s (UPF) ability to enforce the government’s border control measures and keep the community safe.

Around the Missions

Continued to support economic recovery and resilience through the rollout of our AUD20 million COVID-19 Economic Response Package. Announced in June, this package is supporting small-scale community infrastructure projects throughout the country as well as providing social assistance payments for vulnerable households. The design process for the Bolsa da Mae Jerasoun Foun payments is well underway with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion for cash payments to help women and children overcome poverty.

Together with Japan, funded UNICEF to build permanent water and sanitation facilities at a number of border posts, quarantine and isolation facilities.

This is an important COVID-19 infection prevention and control measure for people crossing the border into Timor-Leste.

Progressed important infrastructure upgrades for Port Hera as part of our maritime security partnership in preparation for the arrival of two Guardianclass Patrol Boats from Australia in 2023. We also commenced preparations for our annual defence exercise Hari’i Hamutuk – Australian Defence Force members have arrived in Timor-Leste and undergone quarantine so that they are ready to conduct this year’s activities with the F-FDTL in Tilomar, Metinaro, Port Hera and Baucau in accordance with strict COVID-19 procedures.

Welcomed the arrival of an Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) to Timor-Leste. This is the second team of medical experts to arrive this year and its members are supporting the Ministry of Health to provide critical care to COVID-19 patients, bolstering the efforts of the medical teams at the Vera Cruz and Lahane isolation facilities and National Hospital. I was honoured to accompany the team when they recently briefed Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak on their activities, highlighting too the tireless service of Timor-Leste’s healthcare workers throughout the pandemic.

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Provided 30 oxygen concentrators and therapy kits from Australia, to support the Ministry of Health’s critical care response for the treatment of severe COVID-19 cases. Australia is proud to continue its contribution of life-saving medical supplies in Timor‑Leste’s fight against COVID-19.

Continued to prioritise education by partnering with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to implement the new phase of our ALMA program in Manatuto and Liquica. This included providing electronic tablets to school leaders to improve communication and access to curriculum materials, together with training – all designed to help improve the quality of teaching.

Maintained high-level engagement including at leaders’ level. In a phone call in August Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her counterpart Foreign Minister Adaljiza Magno discussed our shared economic recovery from the pandemic, and support for the acceleration of Timor-Leste’s vaccine rollout with more than 577,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses so far delivered from Australia. Australia will continue to support the Ministry of Health as this important rollout continues across the country.

Timor-Leste has been fighting through its second (and worst) wave of COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, driven by the Delta variant.

On 24 August we saw the highest new case numbers in a single day (532) and it has been deeply saddening to witness the increase in deaths over the past month.

HE Peter Roberts extends his condolences to those families who have lost loved ones.

But the fight continues and now over 30% of TimorLeste’s eligible population (18+) is fully vaccinated – an amazing achievement in such a short amount of time. In Dili that number rises to over 60% and everyone should be incredibly proud of the progress made to date.

Source: HE Peter Roberts Monthly Newsletters posted on the Australian Embassy, Timor-Leste, website

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True Blue December 2021

Around the Missions

500 plus police officers will be involved in lockdown operation in Honiara At least 500 plus police officers of the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) will be deployed during the lockdown exercise operation that will start on 29 August and finish on 31 August 2021.

COVID-19 Police Operation Commander, Mr. Simpson Pogeava says the lockdown will start at 6pm on 29 August and will finish at 6am on 31 August 2021.

Alligator Creek in the Eastern side of Honiara International Airport. Within those sub-zones, there are 10 checkpoints within Honiara and part of Guadalcanal policing jurisdiction.

Commander Pogeava says police are supporting the Ministry of Health and Medical Services as the leading agency to test their response capabilities should there be any community transmission when our borders are open.

He says police are working on other essential services to be exempted during the lockdown.

Mr. Pogeava says from the police operational perspective, there will be six sub-zones boundaries from Poha Bridge in Northwest Guadalcanal to

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“Be mindful, though it is a lockdown exercise, but police will arrest and charge those who breach it. I ask you, my good people in Honiara, to stay home during the lockdown. Other essential services will be exempted and work during the lockdown period to attend other essential services,” says Commander Pogeava.

Around the Missions

True Blue December 2021

Aola community impressed with new police station The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) now has a new Police Station after the old police post was burned down in 2020 due to electrical fault.

The new Police Station is located in the northeast of Guadalcanal Province funded by the Solomon Islands Development program (SIPDP).

Officers from the Police Infrastructure Department (PID), Director Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) Mr Philip Baura and SIPDP Infrastructure and logistics Advisor Steve Malam attended to a ceremony that was organised by the Aola communities and the contractors to show their appreciation for the newly build Police Station gifted by SIPDP to RSIPF for the communities and people of Aola on 14 August 2021.

Community Chief Mr Job Geseni says, “I want to thank the SIPDP for funding this project by rebuilding this Police Station for communities in Aola. Communities in Aola were very pleased to have what is more important to them

and what was long waited for to be finally there to protect them.”

Speaking during the program, SIPDP Advisor Steve Malam says, “I want to thank the Bako constructions for their commitment that leads to the completion of the building and thank you to the MID for the designed plan for this Police Station. The official handing over of this building to the RSIPF will be done later. But I am happy with the well done job.”

Aola communities’ representative Seraldo Ngelea says, “We are proud to have this Police Station built in our community.

This will allow members of the communities to access the RSIPF services in the community. We will work together with the police officers to look after our Police Station and look forward to seeing more police officers working in our community.”

SIDPL Advisor Steve Malam (AFP).

Building contractor Mr Bako Dua says during his speech at the ceremony, that he acknowledged the hard work and commitment put in by communities to assist his contractors from the beginning to the completion of the police station. Well done for us all and we completed the building.

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True Blue December 2021

Around the Missions

68 RSIPF recruits graduate as police constables Several hundred family members, invited guests and officers of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) today witnessed the graduation of 68 recruit officers as police constables during a ceremony at the Rove Police Headquarters in Honiara today (6 August 2021).

This is the first recruit group for 2021. There are 28 women and 40 men in the group.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Commissioner of Police, Mostyn Mangau says, “It is a proud moment for me as Commissioner, and all of us, to witness these recruits taking their oath of office as police constables and graduating as they prepare themselves for duties as police officers.”

“These recruits have passed the academic phase of the recruit training, and now are graduating as probationary constables for the next 2 years.

The recruits will shortly be assigned to stations and departments, initially undertaking operational duties.”

“Today you become constables of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force. It is a proud day for you and your families. It is a proud day for the RSIPF,” Commissioner Mangau told the graduating recruits.

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“You are always police officers, day and night, and you are responsible for showing all who meet you that you are proud of that fact and proud of who we are as RSIPF officers. Always wear your uniform with pride. Always remember how proud you felt on the day in the RSIPF Academy when you first put on the blue shirt and hat.”

“Always remember the pride you feel wearing this uniform today. That sense of pride will guide you on your path as police officers. It will guide you and remind you of the Oath of office you took and the values you stand for. There will be times when your integrity will be challenged, when culture or pressures will make it difficult for you. Do not give in,” Commissioner Mangau emphasises to the new police constables.

Guest of Honour at the graduation ceremony, Minister of Police, National Security and Correctional

Around the Missions

Services, Hon. Anthony Veke congratulated the RSIPF for taking the new recruits through the training program.

“On behalf of the Solomon Island Government and the people of this country, I wish to congratulate the Commissioner of Police, Mostyn Mangau, your Executive, Solomon Islands Police Development Program (SIPDP), Solomon Island Police Support Program (SIPSP) and the staff of Human Resources Department and RSIPF academy for successfully organising the first recruit group this year 2021,” says Minister Veke.

He emphasised to the new police constables: “To you graduands, let me highlight to you the significance of the Oath of Office that you have taken before the Police Commissioner. This Oath of Office is legibly invaluable and it empowers you as police constables. Importantly, it gives you the powers to perform police duties to the laws of Solomon Islands.

I salute and wish you well in your career path, as you commence your policing journey, to discharge the powers vested upon you in serving our communities.”

Minister Veke says, “Now you graduate and become part of the RSIPF as stated by the Commissioner please bear in mind that this comes with the code of ethics that I believe you would have been taught by your academic staff. Please be reminded that you must continue to reflect on the Oath of Office that you have taken, ensuring that you continue to uphold the standards that our community expects from you as disciplined police officers.”

Reverend Bishop Takeli, who is patron of the first recruit course for this year told the recruits, “As I have already told you during the opening of this recruit program, the theme for this recruit group, ‘A strong police force to influence good moral leadership and effective governance for successful nationhood in Solomon Islands’ provides the basis

True Blue December 2021

for understanding the purpose of the work of RSIPF as given in the organisation’s motto.”

The RSIPF motto is “To provide a safe and peaceful Solomon Islands by strengthening relationship with community”.

“This motto is a concise description of the vision and goal for the work of RSIPF to establish peace, security, bring joy and prosperity in Solomon Islands,” said Bishop Takeli He added, “This is the purpose of the work of RSIPF and this work is guided by the standard operating principles including honesty, respect, integrity, diligence, respect for the laws and government.

“This work demands higher competence and personal discipline to carry it out. As a police officer, you will be expected to conduct yourself with the highest respect and honour to uphold the image, integrity, discipline and values most appropriate to the good image of RSIPF. I would like to acknowledge you for your great achievement and wish you God’s blessing as you take up your new career as a police officer,” said Bishop Takeli.

Chairman of the graduation recruits Police Constable Augustine Mafuara says, “I would like to thank the almighty God for continuing blessing during the training period. Though we encountered challenges, temptations and difficulties, we managed to complete the training successfully and have graduated.”

Constable Mafuara says, “Before we joined the Force we saw police officers as just as people wearing the sky-blue uniform. But when we completed the training we now realise that it is not about the uniform but the great role and responsibilities of police officers, the importance of community policing and partnership, team work principles and many more.”

Source: Royal Solomon Islands Police (RSIP)

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True Blue December 2021

Around the Missions

RSIPF farewells SIPDP advisors The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) yesterday (12 August 2021) farewelled Solomon Islands Police Development Program (SIPDP) Advisors Julie Mitchell and Michael Young after serving years with the Program.

RSIPF Commissioner Mostyn Mangau acknowledged and greatly appreciated the service rendered

by SIPDP Advisors during their years in Solomon Islands.

“I wish to acknowledge the contribution that both of you have made to the Executive of the RSIPF and the other departments you have been attached to during your time as SIPDP advisors,” said Commissioner Mangau.

He added, “On behalf of all ranks and files of the RSIPF I would like to sincerely thank Advisor young and Advisor Mitchell for providing essential support to the specific departments they have worked in during their term in the program.”

SIDP Advisor Michael Young being presented his Letter of Appreciation

by Commissioner Mangau with SIDP Senior Advisor Paul Osbourne looking on.

Mr Mangau says, “Your contribution to capacity development within the RSIPF during your service is highly commended.”

In their brief farewell remarks, Advisor Mitchell and Advisor Young said, “Thank you Commissioner, RSIPF and SIPDP Executive for this wonderful opportunity over the past years. Working with the RSIPF has been an extremely rewarding and fulfilling experience. They have grown to love Solomon Islands and its people and sincerely hope to return one day.”

Both SIPDP Advisors were presented with a Letter of Appreciation and a RSIPF plaque as a token of appreciation from the RSIPF Organization.

SIDP Advisor Julie Mitchell being presented her Letter of Appreciation

by Commissioner Mangau with SIDP Senior Advisor Paul Osbourne looking on.

People say that drinking milk makes you stronger. Drink 5 glasses of milk and try to move a wall.

Can’t? Now drink 5 glasses of wine.

The wall moves all by itself!

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Around True the Missions Blue December 2021

Taliban reopens schools in Afghanistan for boys only and repurposes women’s affairs ministry Girls have been excluded from the reopening of secondary schools in Afghanistan despite an earlier Taliban promise not to take the country back to the dark days of the 1990s.

On Saturday the Taliban’s new education minister ordered the reopening of educational settings across the country after a month-long hiatus – but only for boys.

Ministry has now been re-named the Vice and Virtue Ministry. It is now officially tasked with enforcing the group’s rigid interpretation of Islam.

Girls were seen at the gates of primary schools in Kabul, but teenage girls and female teachers have yet to be allowed back into secondary classrooms.

Staff from the World Bank’s 110 million-euro Women’s Economic Empowerment and Rural Development Programme were escorted off the grounds.

On Friday the head of the UN’s Children’s Agency said she feared girls might be permanently excluded from their high school education.

A programme member, Sharif Akhtar, who was walked out with his staff, was at a loss to explain how the programme could now continue.

Henrietta H. Fore said in a statement: “It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays. For that, we need female teachers to resume teaching.”

The Taliban members inside the new ministry said they had not been informed about if or when a new ministry for women’s affairs would be established.

In another ominous setback for women’s rights, the building that housed the Afghan Women’s Affairs

By Daniel Bellamy with AFP, AP

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True Blue December 2021

Around the Missions

David Savage.

War Crimes Investigator’s journey through Hell and back as world wakes up to reality of Afghanistan David Savage is a former AFP Officer who went to Afghanistan as a War Crimes Investigator and a DFAT development contractor. This article was written shortly after the withdrawal of Coalition forces (including Australian troops).

Watching the disaster in Afghanistan this week, I couldn’t help casting my mind back more than 20 years to relive the feelings of dread and horror I experienced in September 1999, trapped inside the UN compound in Dili, East Timor, as Indonesian soldiers and militias beyond the walls took retribution on the country, destroyed property, and deported and killed large numbers of civilians.

Thousands of East Timorese sheltering near the UN compound came under gunfire. In terror,

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their survival instinct took over. They climbed over razor-wire, slashing their bodies, and threw their children over the wall in the hope they would be saved. The difference at Kabul Airport this week was that the same gnawing fear led people to cling to the wheels a US Air Force plane as it took off, several falling to their deaths.

Both these events to me are deeply personal.

In East Timor, I served as an Australian Federal Police Officer with the UN CivPol and watched thugs try to

Around the Missions

extinguish the hopes of a new nation. Ten years later, I found myself in Afghanistan trying to help build one.

I was working with the Independent Human Rights Commission, a group of mainly young Afghanistan academics working hard to ensure the future would be different. We undertook a war crimes mapping project, identifying those responsible for atrocities and ensuring they would be excluded from roles in the government. I enjoyed many a night sitting with them in the gardens of their homes with their families as they discussed how things would be different for their children. Now I fear what has or will become of those intelligent and enthusiastic young people who clearly held the promise of a new Afghanistan.

When you work in lawless and unsafe environments such as Afghanistan, you form deep bonds with the people around you. And when you leave part of your soul stays behind. Forty-one Australian families lost a loved one in Afghanistan, hundreds more Australians were physically wounded, thousands were left suffering trauma. These are soldiers, police and civilians who will never be entirely the same. I know because I am one of them. The scars and injuries I bought home – both physical and mental – from the day a suicide child bomber tried to kill me will be with me the rest of my life.

Now, like many, I am asking the question, what was it all for? Why is it that we educated people never seem to learn from our mistakes? And what are our responsibilities to those left behind?

How could these scenes be playing out in front of us, when anyone who has followed Afghanistan closely believed this would be the inevitable outcome of the US and coalition withdrawal.

One thing foreigners quickly learn when working in conflict zones is we can hop on a plane and be spirited away; the people of these countries don’t have such fortune.

SURVIVAL INSTINCTS When a regime falls, even one as primitive and barbarous as the Taliban, it leaves a vacuum.

So when the US led coalition took over the country – despite what President Joe Biden says now – it was committed to nation building. The Taliban debased women, prevented their education; the men had to toe the line too, or suffer the consequences. As a result, the job of dragging the Afghan nation out of the dark ages into the 21st century could never be undertaken in one year, or five or even twenty years.

It was going to take generations.

In 2010, after working on UN War Crimes Investigations, I returned to Australia to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In 2011 I was given the opportunity to return to

True Blue December 2021

Afghanistan as a stabilisation adviser within the Coalition’s provincial reconstruction team. The role was ambiguous, although some of the essential elements were clear. I would work directly with government officials, and village and tribal leaders, to deliver desperately needed development projects.

These were intended to not only make the lives of local people better, but show that the government in faraway Kabul cared about them, in the hope that they would reject Taliban insurgency and support the government and the Western Military Coalition.

The environment in the Chora district of Oruzgan province, where I was based, was vastly different and more challenging than life in the capital. Threats were ever present, especially improvised explosive devices (IED’s). The Taliban not only exerted a strong physical presence, they exercised a psychological grip over the people. They told the population the coalition wouldn’t stay forever. Eventually they would be back in control. They sent threatening “night letters“ telling people that if they sided with the coalition there would be retribution. District police chiefs and governors were assassinated, attacks on Afghan security and coalition forces were constant, and hundreds of villages were rocked by IED blasts.

In investigating wart crimes, I often struggled with the culpability of those on the fringe of terrible acts: those that had “just gone along” so their families would survive. What would I do if I were in their position? I have never been able to come up with a definite answer – survival instinct is primal; people do what they have to.

CHILD BOMBER In March 2012, the Taliban started sending night letters, warning the population against working or being seen to work with me. It was a sign that I was having some success. But it came at a cost.

On the morning of 26 March, I was returning from a meeting with the district governor. Our patrol was only 100 metres from the front gate of the Forward Operating Base. A 12-year-old child in white robes walked past my security detachment and came up behind my back, where he detonated the explosive vest he was wearing. The blast threw me 10 metres in the air and ripped apart my young assailant. I was critically wounded, as were several US members of my security party. Fortunately, the suicide vest the child was wearing was embedded with ball bearings instead of the usual metal nails, screw chains and scrap metal that would have caused catastrophic wounds instead of the relatively neat holes I was left with. Although I was struck by 64 ball bearings, my ballistic vest and helmet protected my vital organs.

I had wounds everywhere except my right arm.

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True Blue December 2021

As I was wounded very close to the front gates of our base, Australian soldiers and US Navy SEALS rushed out, secured the area, and rendered critical first aid to prevent me and wounded members of my SecDet bleeding to death. I was in surgery within the ‘Golden Hour’. Waiting to be medevaced to Tann Kowt, I was taken into a small Regimental Aid Post on the base. In the blur of medics and ordinary soldiers all pitching in, I recall a drip being inserted roughly in my good arm by a young army logistics guy, Josh, who had become a good friend. Later, as the medevac team raised me on board the aircraft, I asked one to hold my hand. I desperately needed reassurance. But he didn’t. I later discovered that when they think a patient isn’t going to make it, they keep an emotional distance.

Emergency surgery followed at a military base in Kandahar, then a flight to Landstuhl, Germany, and more surgery, before it was deemed safe enough to fly me back to Australia. All up, I had 23 operations.

For nine years, I’ve been rehabilitating. Traumatic brain injury required me to re-learn how to read and write. I’ve had operations to repair my hearing and nerves in my arm and legs. I’ve had bone grafts and shrapnel removed, ball bearings keep making their way to the surface.

I learned to walk again and even managed a 10km hike to raise money for the veteran’s charity ‘Soldier On’ in 2014. But all the time there was a 7mm ball bearing lurking next to my spine. It moved two years after the blast. My right leg was paralysed and I was back in the wheelchair. I’m going to do my best to walk again. But sadly, those days of overseas missions assisting others are at an end.

Around the Missions

WITHDRAWAL So, I know, the Taliban don’t just make threats; they carry them out.

As the Taliban had warned, the coalition began their withdrawal in 2013. Trainers had reported on the great success they had in readying the Afghan security forces. They were said to be capable of standing alone. This was folly. Everyone knew that the government was corrupt, even the most basic processes, like paying government workers, including security forces, was bent. Afghans aren’t stupid; they always suspected the coalition would cut and run. If you are on a small wage, have the temptation of huge amounts of money subject to your oversight, and believe the benefactors are on their way out, with the Taliban or warlords to replace them, what would you do?

When Australia pulled out in 2014, we had in place a program for assisting those who had worked with us, and who were at risk, to gain humanitarian visas under the Locally-Engaged Employee (LEE) scheme. Yet it was poorly written and administered.

Those who were in fear applied and were left waiting for a decision by a bureaucrat in Canberra. If they did get a response, it usually was that their lives were not at risk – even though their colleagues were being murdered. Of course, some were provided with visas. They were normally those who were in direct contact with the Australian Defence Force or other departments. The reality was that most LEE’s were employed on third-party contracts through labour hire firms.

PLEA FOR HELP The Immigration Department was quick to jump on this to reject applicants because they weren’t employed by “Australia”. The government has proudly proclaimed that we have evacuated most of those who worked with us on combat missions. Were these the most at risk, those who swept in and out with Special Forces wearing balaclavas? Or those who worked with the ADF in the community training security forces going on goodwill patrols, who were easily identified by the community and Taliban operatives? What about those who worked with me in the community who were standing next to officials when projects were opened and ribbons cut? I think it’s a reasonable conclusion that these people face the greatest danger.

Sadly, the point is now moot. In May, the Australian Embassy suddenly closed, leaving local staff to make their protection requests on-line. Even educated Australian’s struggle to complete government forms on-line, let alone Afghans trying to fill out

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Around the Missions

37-odd pages in a second language. Their fate was set, despite years of requests to be given asylum, and increasingly urgent entreaties to the government from friends in recent months. Now, the Taliban has taken over.

The security forces put up some resistance, but the Taliban succeeded with powerful “psyops”.

They brutalized captured government employees and soldiers, gouging out their eyes and committing other atrocities. They offered amnesty to those who surrendered. The Taliban even used social media to send videos of their Atrocities to show Afghan officials what awaited them if they refused to surrender. When faced with almost certain torture and death, do you fight or perhaps pray to Allah that the Taliban will honour their offer?

The survival instinct cut in., and the military either ran away or surrendered, and city after city fell day by day.

And the US did nothing except talk. They talked to the Taliban in the absence of an Afghan government official and they talked to the world telling us that the Taliban had changed. But this was not reflected on the ground. Many Afghan veterans, military, police and civilians pleaded with coalition countries to get their Afghan local staff out. Nothing happened.

True Blue December 2021

AFTERMATH As the Taliban reached the outskirts of Kabul and the worlds leaders suddenly woke, they were shocked, claiming no one could have foreseen such a consequence. Perhaps that is why the mission failed in the first place.

Now we have some flights entering Kabul amid an uneasy truce between the Taliban, who control the capital, and the coalition. As foreign countries remove their nationals, they will take with them a few thousand Afghans. But not all those at risk will be given a ticket out, including human rights advocates, Academica, journalists and of course many who served with us.

As desperate people jammed the roads to Kabul Airport, Scott Morrison told us “And more will come. I want you to know that we will continue to do everything we can for those who have (fought) with us, as we have to this day.

But I want to talk openly to veterans that despite out best efforts, I know that support won’t reach all that it should. On the ground events have overtaken many efforts. We wish it were different”.

Don’t we all

Source: The Australian 31 August 2021

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True Blue December 2021

Lennie and Ginger Mick It’s 1932 and Australia is in the grip of the Great Depression. One in three workers are unemployed. Decrepit shanty towns hug the outskirts of the big cities.

A scrawny rabbit caught in a trap will feed a family for a week. Country roads are filled with broken men walking from one farmhouse to another seeking menial jobs and food. On the outskirts of the South Gippsland town of Leongatha, an injured farmer lies in bed unable to walk – or work. World War I hero Captain Leo Tennyson Gwyther is in hospital with a broken leg and the family farm is in danger of falling into ruins. Up steps his son, nine-year-old Lennie. With the help of his pony Ginger Mick, Lennie ploughs the farm’s 24 paddocks and keeps the place running until his father can get back on his feet. How to reward him? Lennie has been obsessively following one of the biggest engineering feats of the era – the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

He wants to attend its opening. With great reluctance, his parents agree he can go. So Lennie saddles up Ginger Mick, packs a toothbrush, pyjamas, spare clothes and a water bottle into a sack, and begins the 1000+ kilometre (600+ miles) trek to Sydney. Alone. That’s right.

A nine-year-old boy riding a pony from the deep south of Victoria to the biggest and roughest city in the nation.

Told you it was a different era. No social media.

No mobile phones. But even then, it doesn’t take long before word begins to spread about a boy, his horse and their epic trek. The entire populations of small country towns gather on their outskirts to welcome his arrival.

He survives bushfires, is attacked by a “vagabond” and endures rain and cold, biting winds. When he reaches Canberra, he is welcomed by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, who invites him into Parliament House for tea.

When he finally arrives in Sydney, more than 10,000 people line the streets to greet him. He is besieged by autograph hunters. He becomes a key part of the official parade at the bridge’s opening. He and Ginger Mick are invited to make a starring appearance at the Royal Show. Even Donald Bradman, the biggest celebrity of the Depression era, requests a meeting and gives him a signed cricket bat. A letter writer to The Sydney Morning Herald at the time gushes that “just such an example as provided by a child of nine summers, Lennie Gwyther was, and is, needed to raise the spirit of our people and to fire our youth and others to do things – not to talk only. “The sturdy pioneer spirit is not dead … let it be remembered that this little lad, when his father was in hospital, cultivated the farm – a mere child.” When Lennie leaves Sydney for home a month later, he has become one of the most famous figures in a country craving uplifting news. Large crowds wave handkerchiefs. Women weep and shout “goodbye”.

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According to The Sun newspaper, “Lennie, being a casual Australian, swung into the saddle and called ‘Toodleloo!’”. He finally arrives home to a tumultuous reaction in Leongatha. He returns to school and soon life for Lennie – and the country – returns to normal.

These days you can find a bronze statue in Leongatha commemorating Lennie and Ginger Mick.

But Australia has largely forgotten his remarkable feat – and how he inspired a struggling nation. Never taught about him in school? Never heard of him before?

Spread the word. We need to remember – and celebrate – Lennie Gwyther and his courageous journey.

It’s a great story. God knows we need these stories now, more than ever.

True Blue December 2021

Caption This!

The photograph below shows two of our members, Ross Lang and Dave Williams both from the 2nd Contingent to Cyprus (1965-66). The photograph is taken up in the Bunya Mountains in Qld. Send in your most appropriate caption for this photograph. The best submissions will be published in the next issue of True Blue. Send your caption to enidandrod@tpg.com.au

Laughter is the best medicine, but if you laugh for no reason, you need medicine.

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True Blue December 2021

Does anyone remember the poetress Pam Ayres?

Well, she’s 73 and still going strong.

This is her latest ode to coronavirus…

I’m normally a social girl I love to meet my mates But lately with the virus here We can’t go out the gates.

So here you find me stuck inside For four weeks, maybe more I finally found myself again Then I had to close the door!

You see, we are the ‘oldies’ now We need to stay inside If they haven’t seen us for a while They’ll think we’ve upped and died.

It didn’t really bother me I’d while away the hour I’d bake for all the family But I’ve got no flaming flour!

They’ll never know the things we did Before we got this old There wasn’t any Facebook So not everything was told.

Now Netflix is just wonderful I like a gutsy thriller I’m swooning over Idris Or some random sexy killer.

We may seem sweet old ladies Who would never be uncouth But we grew up in the 60s If you only knew the truth!

At least I’ve got a stash of booze For when I’m being idle There’s wine and whiskey, even gin If I’m feeling suicidal!

There was sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll The pill and miniskirts We smoked, we drank, we partied And were quite outrageous flirts.

So let’s all drink to lockdown To recovery and health And hope this awful virus Doesn’t decimate our wealth.

Then we settled down, got married And turned into someone’s mum, Somebody’s wife, then nana, Who on earth did we become?

We’ll all get through the crisis And be back to join our mates Just hoping I’m not far too wide To fit through the flaming gates

We didn’t mind the change of pace Because our lives were full But to bury us before we’re dead Is like a red rag to a bull!

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True Blue December 2021

Vale On behalf of the UNOPAA National Executive, our National Committee, State Branches and all members of UNOPAA, we would like to acknowledge the service of the following, particularly to overseas peacekeeping, and to express our sympathy to family, contingent colleagues and friends.

It is with regret that we advise of the passing of:

PETER RAYMOND ‘SOOTY’ DE BRITT A member of the 26th and 27th Contingents to Cyprus (1987-88).

DAVID JOHN COTTRELL

Sooty passed away on 11 September 2021, aged 75 years.

A Commonwealth Police/AFP member of the 13th (1976-77), 15th (1978-79), 21st (1984) and 22nd (1985) Contingents to Cyprus. David also served at posts in Beijing and Moscow.

Sooty’s funeral was held privately on 22 September 2021 in Young, NSW

David passed away on 24th October 2021 aged 74 years.

ERNEST (ERNIE) ASTON A SA Police member of the 2nd Contingent to Cyprus (1965-66).

David’s Funeral was held on Tuesday 2nd November 2021 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Church Street, Delegate, NSW

KEN FRENCH

Ernie passed away in his sleep on Thursday, 21 October 2021 at the grand age of 99 years.

His funeral was held privately.

A Commonwealth Police member of the 4th Contingent to Cyprus (1967-68).

Advice of his death was received from his grandson, Andrew Aston.

Ken passed away in his sleep on 28 October 2021 after a short illness. He was aged 90 years.

Ken’s funeral was held at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, 199 Delhi Road, North Ryde NSW, on Friday, 5 November 2021.

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ANF Challenge Coin IMPORTANT NOTES The UNOPAA will take the utmost care in packaging; however, we will not accept any responsibility for goods damaged in transit.

The UNOPAA will not accept returns where the product or merchandise is ordered specifically for an individual (eg Montage, clothing, etc) All queries for return of merchandise must be received within 30 days from date of purchase and directed to the UNOPAA Merchandise officer @heldale.cooper@ gmail.com. Item returns will be at the discretion of the APPVA Merchandise Officer provided the above criterion is met in the first instance. Please choose carefully as UNOPAA cannot accept returns due to a change of mind.