Rahman's journey from conflict to peacekeeping.
Private Mohammed Abdur Rahman was born in Bangladesh and emigrated to Australia when he was 21.
Having witnessed conflict surrounding Bangladesh's bid for independence as a child, he was eager to serve with the Australian Army to assist East Timor's journey to nationhood.
In 1999, he took leave from his job and enlisted for active service in East Timor. By May 2000 he was patrolling as a section gunner for 6 Platoon, B Company, the 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, in the rugged terrain of Timor.
In this video, Senior Historian Dr Dave Sutton explores Rahman’s story through the objects on display in the Memorial’s Peacekeeping Gallery. At first glance, these objects may seem small and ordinary, but together they tell a remarkable story about Private Mohammed Abdur Rahman. They reveal the personal motivations behind peacekeeping, as well as the dangers faced by those serving on peacekeeping operations.
Private Rahman grew up in war-torn Bangladesh and emigrated to Australia when he was 21 years old.
This is the story of a man who grew up in conflict and when he came to Australia, he wanted to give back to the country. He loved Australia and became a proud Australian and served in the army reserves and later the regular army as a peacekeeper in East Timor.
He actually transferred over to 6RAR and deployed to East Timor as part of Operation Tanager.
Private Rahman's story is that of a life interrupted.
Rahman was employed with Holden at the time when he decided to transfer over to 6RAR and this is a letter, a memorandum which was written by the authorities at Holden which released him for that service and allowed him to go.
This is a polaroid taken at the farewell event that they held for him at Holden, wishing him well and showing the support that he had from the Australian community as he was about to embark on this terrifying and fulfilling adventure.
It just shows the way that he decided to put his life and his career on hold in order to deploy overseas and to help others.
He'd grown up in a place which had been affected by war.
He knew the good that peacekeepers could do and he wanted to use his skills in the military as a way to help people in their time of need in the same way that people had helped him as a young man.
While Rahman was deployed to East Timor with 6RAR, he was in a compound with some of his comrades when they came under a concerted grenade attack at their compound at Aidabasalala and this is a sketch done by Lance Corporal John Stapleton which shows the direction of all the and where they exploded and the very real dangers that the Australians faced.
It's an amazing record of a very specific moment in time for Australians in East Timor and really valuable to the historical record and our understanding of Australian peacekeeping.
Rahman decided that he was going to take a camera with him so that he could take photos of his deployment and then send those pictures back to Australia so that his wife Janet could get some understanding of what he was experiencing and what life was like in Timor.
He went to a shop in Melbourne to buy this camera and the person who owned the shop was actually from Timor, a refugee from Timor, and when he found out that Rahman was buying it so that he could deploy as a peacekeeper to his homeland, he gave him a discount and wished him well and it just shows these great connections between the Australian and the East Timorese community and the goodwill between these peoples.
This display is a really great one to show the way that lives are affected by service.
This is someone who halted his career in civilian life so that he could deploy as a peacekeeper.
It showed both the dangers that peacekeepers come under, the way that their lives can be changed by their experiences and also the incredible good that they can do.
They did so much humanitarian work while in Timor and Rahman continues that to this day, helping people and educating people and being such an incredible part of the community and that was something that really impressed us and something that really touched us.
