A Manning update

Abstract

Papers recently released under the Official Information Act throw interesting further light on the July 2000 shooting in East Timor of New Zealand army private Leonard Manning and, particularly, on a number of specific issues that were raised by this writer in an article on the incident in the NZIR in May 2001(vol 26, no2). A different perspective on the whole episode also came from the trial in Jakarta in 2001-02 of five persons who were accused of participating in the incident, and a little further illumination has been provided in the 2005 New Year’s honours list. The papers referred to above were the edited product of a series of interviews conducted in early November 2000 by (then) official East Timor historian Lieutenant Colonel Glyn Harper. These interviews were conducted with various participants in the action, including other members of Manning’s patrol. Before turning to specific matters, it is necessary to provide a brief summary of the incident. This is not an easy matter since some facts are still obscure and some(obscure, or otherwise) are very controversial.