Misleading reporting on East Timor

Today’s edition of ‘The Australian’ has misreported my comments in Indonesia yesterday on the current military operations in East Timor.

At no time during the press conference at Semarang yesterday did I make any reference to Australian troops being under orders to hunt down and kill the army renegade, Major Alfredo Reinado. Nor did I in any way characterise the Australian Government’s stance as wanting Major Reinado “dead or alive”.

As I stressed repeatedly at the press conference, it is not for government ministers to determine the operational decision-making of our commanders within the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor.

As I also stressed - and as ‘The Australian’ quoted me as saying - every endeavour would be made to capture Major Reinado alive. I said he could not hide in the jungle indefinitely, and that his best option would be surrender.

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