The Timor Man (82 page)

The OPM freedom fighters would cross from New Guinea as they had done before, raiding the transmigration villages established by the Javanese in Irian Jaya, killing and terrorizing until the migrants fled and they themselves returned across to the safety of their own borders. They would burn the freeport copper town of Tembagapura and destroy the mountainous mining facility which continued to fatten Jakarta's coffers.

Australia
would immediately go on the defensive once their coastal areas had been threatened and their cities attacked. The Timorese would press for yet another UN-sponsored resolution supporting their independence and, should this also fail, insurrection would occur immediately. Teams would take over the drilling rigs and those which could not be secured would be destroyed, with their crews.

His strategy was to activate the groups simultaneously. The first group, numbering twenty and armed with the weapons to be distributed by Umar, would strike the small town of Broome on the northern coast of Western Australia.

Their instructions would be to shoot and kill as many of the inhabitants as possible in one hour and then retreat. They were not to differentiate in their random selection of targets. Distasteful as it may be for the guerrillas, they were told that maximum effect could be attained if a reasonable number of women and children died in the attack.

The strike team would enter the area in vehicles which would be transported to within a few kilometres of the small town along with the weapons. This equipment would be in place three days prior to the attack, stored in two semi-trailers along with other essential items. The large trucks would be driven from the interstate storage company in Perth, an outfit Seda had arranged to purchase, along with the vehicles, the previous year. These would then meet up with the team at an abandoned cattle station airstrip.

Their escape would be by air. Two Nomads that had been acquired were currently housed in their hanger in Port Moresby. When the time came, both would be flown down through Queensland and across towards the target area where they would wait until after the raid, and then ferry the group back to Darwin, from where the aircraft would then return to their original departure point. The aircraft would fly low on the sectors in and out of the strike zone area. Flight plans would be submitted excluding these sectors, nominating other unmanned private airstrips, any number of which could be found throughout the enormous expanse of the great Australian outback. The Nomads would not be detected and, even if they were to show up on the traffic controllers'screens, they would probably be mistaken for another couple of foolish country flyers building up extra hours on their private licenses.

Seda had first developed the concept when reading how so many small aircraft continued to enter Australian airspace undetected. Many of the flights were drug-related shipments and he could never understand why the Australian air force was so complacent when it came to light aircraft landing at their military strips.

As the attack was to take place during the early evening, the raiding party would have sufficient time to complete their task and disappear before the shocked Australians could even begin to understand what had happened to their town. He estimated that, as the killing would occur during the school holiday period, the dead could number as many as three or four hundred.

His men would wear Indonesian uniforms, complete with their colourful berets and shoulder flashes. They had to be seen to be an elite Indonesian military corp responsible for the attack. Seda smiled at the reverse role some of the older men would play, former FRETILIN soldiers who would finally have the opportunity to take their revenge and have the Indonesians taste a little of their own for a change, once the Australians retaliated! The town would be in shock and relatively defenceless.

The men were to move in quickly, driving the jeeps through the main street and into the police station where they were to kill those present and set fire to the building. The post office would be closed, but the Telstra communications were a first priority target and had to be destroyed quickly. It was unlikely there would be many cellular telephones operating although, if there were, there was little they could do about this problem. Next, the team was to drive to the hotels and bars, strafing the windows and doors, and randomly shoot all pedestrians within sight. In the event some of the local inhabitants were able to take up arms and return their fire, bodies of any of their dead or wounded were not to be left behind.

The second group of seventy-five men, similarly dressed, would hit three or more of the small fishing villages across the Torres Strait killing as many of the islanders as time permitted. These raiders would escape, also through the night, by small high performance boats returning to one of Seda's offshore crew vessels, their point of embarkation. The smaller craft would then be scuttled.

They would remain on board until receiving further instructions from Umar. A specialist team of three would work from his residence. A catering truck would depart from the embassy compound where it would have been positioned away from the inquisitive eyes of the police until the time was right for its special delivery to the people of Australia. The vehicle had already been purchased and was being prepared by his Security Attaché. Seda smiled. Umar with a diplomatic passport! He wanted to laugh, and would have, had not the thought been so serious.

The small truck had already been repainted leaving only the appropriate company logo and colours to be affixed. They had done their homework with relative ease; security in the capital was quite deplorable, as he'd discovered during first investigations as to the viability of his plan.

It would really be so incredibly simple! Umar had come up with the idea and he had approved of it almost immediately. It was brilliant! The small truck had double lock doors at the back and a sliding access hole on the roof of the aluminium housing which rested lightly on the extended tray. Inside the container and immediately in the centre, Umar would place a drum of diesel oil and then steadily pack the metal bin with ammonium nitrate until the relative proportions had been achieved. When he had finished there would be approximately seven percent of the total contents in fuel oil sitting silently in the compacted mass of fertilizer, which they would purchase through the same trucking firm Seda had acquired for the Western Australian operation. As ammonium nitrate absorbs humidity from the air, making it much more difficult to ignite, the diesel oil was necessary to keep the chemical from absorbing the humidity, making it more combustible and compatible with the detonators they had planned for their surprise delivery.

Then it was just a matter of using the simple technique that Umar had observed so many of the registered suppliers were instructed to follow when on a run into the service areas of the Houses of Parliament.

The truck would be left parked below in one of the appropriate bays designated for light deliveries, and Umar would simply take one of the service lifts, walk through into the building and follow the staff until accessing the public passageways in the uncomplicated structure, leaving through the front entrance. Umar had already visited the buildings and had conceived the idea after discovering the incredibly lax security. He had been amazed when first entering the building that they had even given him a brochure complete with plans of the overall layout. He had tested his idea at least a dozen times, casually walking through the entrance which leads into the Great Hall, turning to the left as if he'd intended using the toilet before taking the lift down to the underground carpark. Umar had discovered that there was an alternative choice available. Should any difficulties occur on the day, he would park the van on the common carpark instead as the lifts permitted visitors to exit directly outside the main structure.

The truck and its contents would remain in place until news broke of the successful attack on Broome. This would, no doubt, result in an emergency meeting of both Houses of Parliament. The building would be packed full of the nation's representatives!

Umar had estimated that the force of detonation would be similar to the Oklahoma City disaster or even the IRAbombing of London's East End. The explosion would almost certainly destroy the main building, killing most of the politicians present at that time.

Perhaps the Australian public would give him a medal! He laughed silently to himself, relishing the thought of removing the majority of the so called policy makers in just milliseconds! He expected that the military would act in the absence of any political leadership. The ageing General believed that the plan was almost flawless. The unpredictable Australian cyclone season may present a problem but apart from this consideration, he felt that the operation would be successful.

Umar had already taken up his post as Head of Security in the Embassy, acting as his co-ordinator and making preparations for his own arrival to take up the position as the new Ambassador.

The first team which was to be designated the task of attacking Broome all resided in Australia. These were loyal FRETILIN soldiers, Timorese whose sympathies still supported the use of force to liberate their homeland.

Almost everything was now in place. All that remained was his presence in Canberra, where he would present the new Australian Head of State his credentials, appointing him as the Indonesian Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Seda could hardly wait.

 

Canberra

The Prime Minister had, by now, developed a distaste for the all too frequent meetings with the tall grey-headed Intelligenc
e
Chief.

Having listened to the arguments proposed by Anderso
n
the politician reluctantly admitted that it did, in fact, make
a
great deal of sense to go along with the appointment
.

His first reaction was to instruct the Foreign Affairs Minister t
o
refuse to accept the notorious Seda as the proposed Indonesia
n
Ambassador however, as Anderson had quite rightly suggested
,
although it would not be exactly palatable having him sitting i
n
Canberra, the general public in both countries had no inklin
g
whatsoever of the powerful man's covert activities and, awa
y
from the central power base of Jakarta, he would lose considerable strength and influence in that city. In consequence, th
e
Prime Minister had, with reservations, agreed to the appointment. Normally he would not interfere in such matters; however
,
when the former General's name was mentioned during a praye
r
meeting the Prime Minister remembered having seen somethin
g
about him in the ‘Eyes Only' classified documents
.

Later, in the privacy of his inner sanctum, he was disgusted t
o
discover that he had been correct and that his government wa
s
being asked to accept this evil man at the Ambassadorial level
.

The afternoon following the ceremony accepting the former General's credentials in Canberra, John Anderson visited a two-roo
m
apartment in Braddon, one of the capital's older suburbs.

It wa
s
the home of Albert Seda
.

Hong Kong

 

Stephen had stayed on the island of Koror in the Palau group for four weeks, swimming and snorkelling around the beautiful islands almost untouched by the tourist industry. The pristine beaches remained one of Palau's attractions, pulling him back regularly, like some gigantic magnet, whenever he felt the need to disappear and collect his thoughts.

He had lazed around on the main island for the first week, doing nothing more than walk around the small capital, eat, drink and generally play the tourist in what he considered to be one of the most beautiful islands in Micronesia. It was the combination of the overweight locals, content with their lives and always happy to sit down and talk to a newcomer as they were a naturally hospitable people, and the lazy tropical days, that made one feel completely relaxed. The sun's rays were not overly aggressive and the flat calm lagoon effect of the ocean as it barely moved upon the sands, the faint sound of the ripples licking at the minute granules of coral sand, could guarantee sleep at any time.