Fresh violence in East Timor as rivals square off

By David Fox

DILI (Reuters) – Fears of renewed violence in East Timor
rose on Wednesday after several houses and small shops in the
capital were torched by protesters allied with or against
ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

Alkatiri quit on Monday after weeks of public protest and,
while President Xanana Gusmao mulled the ruling Fretilin
party’s suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party
supporters gathered outside Dili, preparing to march on the
capital.

Hopes for an end to more than two months of violence
fizzled out as news spread of the gathering by Fretilin party
supporters, most of whom are pro-Alkatiri. They were expected
in the capital on Wednesday.

But hundreds of anti-Alkatiri protesters were still camped
outside the main government building and scores scattered in
groups in parks and open areas around the sleepy seaside
capital.

A 2,500-strong Australian-led intervention force had
increased patrols and Australian army firemen were battling
fires in two houses and several shops in a neighbourhood near
the airport on Wednesday.

“I am very worried,” said one businessman as he put
shutters up on his kiosk. “I have taken my valuable stuff
away.”

Also on Wednesday, dozens of youths from the two sides
threw stones at each other in one part of Dili, but Australian
troops quickly moved in to separate them.

Australian troops were seen reinforcing checkpoints and
blockades on the road the Fretilin convoy planned to travel.
Officers have previously said they would allow demonstrations
by all parties as long as they remained peaceful.

DIVIDED NATION

Scores of homes and businesses belonging to eastern
Timorese have been torched in the capital over the past two
months, and although both ethnically and linguistically
identical, there are fears Asia’s newest nation could split
along east-west lines.

That division was responsible for clashes in the armed
forces two months ago that spiraled into looting and arson, and
only ended with the arrival of the intervention force.

Western Timorese are seen as having had Indonesian
sympathies during the country’s often brutal colonial
occupation. Eastern Timorese claim credit for fighting an
insurgency that ended rule by Jakarta.

Fretilin holds 55 of parliament’s 88 seats and, according
to the constitution, has the right to nominate the next prime
minister. The State Council, which advises President Gusmao, is
considering a replacement, but no meeting has yet been
scheduled for Wednesday, a senior political source said.

Diplomats believe Fretilin’s choice for prime minister was
likely to be either the current deputy premier, Ana Pessoa,
Labor Minister Arsenio Bano or Health Minister Rui Maria de
Arauzo.

A non-Fretilin unity candidate could be Foreign Minister
Jose Ramos-Horta, although he has said he would only do the job
as a last resort.

East Timor was a Portuguese colony for centuries before a
revolution in Lisbon in 1975 gave the territory a brief taste
of independence. Indonesian troops invaded a few days later and
Jakarta annexed East Timor in 1976.

After a 1999 vote for independence marked by violence
blamed largely on pro-Jakarta militia with ties to the
Indonesian army, an international peacekeeping force moved into
the territory, ushering in a transitional period of U.N.
administration before East Timor became a fully-fledged nation
in 2002.