Dr Martin Hess1
1Retired AFP member, Royalla, Australia
Biography:
Dr Martin Hess is a retired member of the AFP having served for 33 years as a sworn operational member. He has worked in all Australian domestic jurisdictions and has also deployed internationally to Cyprus, East Timor and Afghanistan. He holds several tertiary qualifications including two Masters. He graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University in 2018. His thesis, The Australian Federal Police as an International Actor: Diplomacy by Default, has recently been published by Australian Scholarly Publishing under the title The Politics of Police Diplomacy: The Australian Experience. He maintains and interest in Moral Injury.
In 1999, 50 members of the AFP formed part of a 270-strong UN Civilian Police element to advise Indonesian police surrounding the UN sponsored ballot concerning the political future of the East Timorese. This small, unarmed element, was in lieu of an estimated requirement for up to 16000 fully armed military peacekeepers. As a result of a flawed UN security agreement security broke down and Indonesian militia proxy forces and elements of the Indonesian military, engaged in violence and intimidation to influence the ballot. Despite this, 98% of registered voters cast a vote of which 78.5% voted against continued involvement with Indonesia. This unleashed a deliberate scorched earth campaign where over 1200 East Timorese were murdered. There were widespread incidents of abduction, torture and rape. Around 70% of the infrastructure was destroyed by arson and large numbers of people were forcibly displaced. Much of this was witnessed by unarmed UN Civilian Police, including AFP members, who were powerless to intervene. This has left a lingering sense of anger and a strong sense of betrayal on the part of police involved, which has been further aggravated by official denial and a failure to appropriately recognise this service on the part of successive Australian Governments. This is a situation where political pragmatism has trumped human-rights principles, and erodes Australia’s credibility as a liberal-democracy. This is a clear case of Moral Injury, which has never been addressed by the UN, the Australian Government or the AFP. This is in need of urgent attention.