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Images: West To East Timor Border Crossings
All photos by LAC Eve Welsh RNZAF
Popular East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao greeted families returning to East Timor from the West last Wednesday along with members of the New Zealand Battalion group based at Suai. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees administered the crossings, recording a total of two hundred and fifty seven returnees. The families were assisted in their repatriation by New Zealand Peace Keepers in the facilities of Junction Point Foxtrot, the border position managed by New Zealanders.
Xanana Gusmao answers questions from the press after meeting with militia members currently living in West Timor.
Lieutenant Lauren Kavanagh of
Christchurch meets two young girls with a turtle as they
wait for a United Nations truck to take them and their
possessions to a transit camp near Suai.
Having just returned to East
Timor from the west, this man waits for the truck that will
take him back to the village he hasn’t seen since
1999.
Corporal Niel Wagner of
Palmerston North (left) and Corporal Stephen Denby of
Colyton, were part of the team checking possessions for
contraband items, before each family’s possessions were
loaded onto trucks for the beginning of their journey
home.
Corporal Chuck MacKay of Otaki,
was part of the team checking possessions for contraband
items, before each family’s possessions were loaded onto
trucks for the beginning of their journey home.
Xanana Gusmao makes a point
with Captain Michelle De Vries of Greymouth. Having been
assigned the role of Public Information Officer only the day
before, Captain De Vries did a great job helping manage the
media at Junction Point Foxtrot, and was rewarded with a
meeting with one of the most famous men in East
Timor.
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