Australian peacekeepers, serving in East Timor Timor as part of the Australian-led International ...

Australian peacekeepers, serving in East Timor Timor as part of the Australian-led International Force for East Timor (INTERFET), control the crowd outside the Dili gymnasium and basketball stadium. The Australians soldiers, with their F88 Steyr rifles hanging from their backs, are left to right: 228352 Warrant Officer Class 2 D Carter; 5800133 Captain S Jenkins; and 184025 Sergeant D Rodgers. The United Nations (UN) had made an offer of employment for 700 local people, registration taking place inside the stadium. Approximately 3000 unemployed people arrived and were forced to wait in hot cramped conditions in a small square outside the stadium. Part way through the proceedings a UN official informed the crowd that only those people with computer skills and good English and Portuguese language skills would be considered for the jobs. Members of the waiting crowd rioted and Jose Ramos-Horta, who had recently returned from exile, was called in to help calm the crowd. As a co-founder and former member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), Ramos-Horta had served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999).