Deliverance

In late 1999 the world watched as a small country became the world's newest nation amid a frenzy of destruction and killing.

Now, Deliverance tells the inside story of East Timor's agony, drawing on hundreds of secret documents and dozens of 'off the record' interviews with government and military insiders in Indonesia, Australia, the United States, and the UN. It paints a startling picture of Indonesia's bloody retreat from East Timor after a brutal 24-year occupation.

Unparalleled access to sources in Jakarta and Canberra and many months of patient research have enabled the authors to strip away the myths and self-interested accounts to reveal in close and hitherto unreported detail the real story - from a distracted president's bold decision, to an internationally monitored ballot, to descent into the cauldron of violence and the arrival of the peace keepers.

Was the murderous violence really carried out by 'rogue elements', as the Australian government would have us believe? Who in Indonesia gave the green light to the program whereby the Indonesian military, assisting the UN in supervising the referendum, were also tasked with ensuring its failure by all available means? Was PM John Howard's efforts to rally support for international action at the Auckland APEC meeting his finest hour? Could Australia have done more to avert the bloodshed? Why wasn't planning for the peacekeeping operation taken seriously in Canberra until two weeks before Interfet landed?

These are just a few of the questions answered in this groundbreaking account.

Deliverance is a classic of investigative journalism. If there is only one account you read of East Timor's struggle for nationhood, this should be it.