ABSTRACT
The fact that the issue of East Timor dominated the foreign and security policy debates in Australia in 1999 is the point of departure for this account. The social and political crisis which gripped Indonesia following the economic meltdown in Asia was justifiably a topic of major concern and prompted preparations for security contingencies as well as programmes of economic and political support. Yet it seemed that almost as much attention was devoted to a territory of some 14,874 km2 with a population of around 800,000, a minor part (albeit unwillingly) of Indonesia since 1976. To understand why East Timor was the focus of such attention it is necessary to consider first the various Australian interests – and interested publics – that were involved.
