NZ General Service Medal Timor-Leste

Nine people from the New Zealand Defence Force and Police who have served as part of New Zealand’s peacekeeping response to the violence in Timor-Leste since 2006 will receive the New Zealand General Service Medal (Timor-Leste), during a special ceremony today. 

Prime Minister Helen Clark, Defence Minister Phil Goff, and Police Minister Annette King will make the presentation in the Beehive at 4.30pm today. Other New Zealand Defence Force personnel will also receive the medal at separate ceremonies around the country in the coming months.

The NZGSM (Timor-Leste) will be presented to seven Defence Force and two Police personnel who have served in Timor-Leste since 28 April 2006. Helen Clark said the recipients have helped provide security in the two years following the outbreak of violence in April 2006.

“Over the past two years, New Zealand personnel in Timor-Leste have faced many challenges in trying conditions. They have risen to those challenges and dealt with them effectively. This medal is a fitting recognition of these efforts,” Helen Clark said.

The nine receiving their medals at Parliament today are:

Colonel Sean Trengrove, New Zealand Army (Deputy Territorial Force Advisor)
Lieutenant Commander Edward Isaac, Royal New Zealand Navy
Squadron Leader Lorena Thomas, Royal New Zealand Air Force
Captain Richard Anderson, Royal New Zealand Army Logistics Regiment
Warrant Officer Class One David Armstrong, Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps (Senior Territorial Force Warrant Officer)
Flight Sergeant Stuart Cribb, Royal New Zealand Air Force
Private Steven Tunley, Royal New Zealand Army Logistics Regiment
Inspector John Spence, New Zealand Police
Senior Sergeant Mark Duncan, New Zealand Police
Phil Goff said: “I have seen first hand on many occasions the professional dedication and friendly and respectful way in which Kiwis in Timor Leste have carried out their work. Their effectiveness is reflected in the warmth of the response they attract from local people, which is a measure of their success.

“Without the international presence in Timor Leste since 1999 the bloodshed and devastation there would have been greater,” Phil Goff said.

The New Zealand General Service Medal was instituted in 2002 and is awarded for operational service commenced since 1 January 2000.

The ribbon for the new medal incorporates the national colours of both Timor-Leste and New Zealand in a pattern of red, yellow, black, and white stripes.