In 1999 I was one of 400 UN District Electoral officers who volunteered to manage the vote for whether East Timor was to be independent of Indonesia or whether it was to be part of it.
For 400 years East Timor had been colonised by the Portuguese and then by the Indonesians in a bloody invasion in 1975 which saw a third of its population killed.
Despite violent intimidation the people voted overwhelmingly for independence.
Now, once again, this impoverished nation is being screwed by Australia which wants to grab as much oil and gas revenue as possible and is using its spy network in a dirty tricks campaign to subvert the legal process.
It appears ASIS bugged the East Timor parliament during the critical Timor Sea Treaty negotiations and now Attorney-General George Brandis has ordered an ASIO raid on the home of lawyer Bernard Collaery representing East Timor in the Hague and arrested an ex-ASIS agent who is now a key witness.
Please support my petition calling for the resignation of Mr Brandis and the head of ASIO, David Irvine (https://www.causes.com/campaigns/70130-get-australias-attorney-general-asios-head-to-resign?new_post_id=865777)
Gareth W R Smith, Byron Bay
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
