Buildings torched in East Timor as protesters leave

DILI – Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri turned back from a march on the capital yesterday, but several buildings were torched as feuding gangs clashed in Dili.

Alkatiri quit on Monday after weeks of protests and, while President Xanana Gusmao considered the ruling Fretilin party’s suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party supporters gathered outside Dili, preparing to march on the capital. But yesterday a Reuters correspondent travelled east of the city and saw the supporters had dispersed and retreated to the town of Metinaro, around 40 km away, where around just 1 500 remained, gathered in the grounds of a school.A huge convoy of anti-Alkatiri protesters left the capital westwards late yesterday at the end of over a week of mostly peaceful demonstrations.Residents and foreign peackeepers had feared the pro- and anti-Alkatiri protesters would meet and turn the sleepy seaside capital into a battleground, but the worries eased as night fell.But earlier, at least a dozen shops and dwellings – some no more than modest shacks – were torched as a simmering east-west divide in Asia’s youngest nation threatened to bubble over.The divide loosely mirrors a split in the armed forces that led Alkatiri to dismiss around 600 soldiers, mostly from the west, after they protested against discrimination two months ago.When rival factions of the army and police clashed, the violence spiralled into an orgy of arson and looting that only ended with the intervention of a 2 500-strong Australian-led intervention force.Australian army firemen fought fires at houses and shops across the city yesterday, and soldiers detained a handful of youths after separating stone-throwing gangs.Western Timorese are seen as having had Indonesian sympathies during the country’s often brutal colonial occupation.Easterners claim credit for fighting an insurgency that ended Jakarta’s rule.But divisions run deeper, with country’s political elite also divided along lines according to their liberation credentials – either spent fighting the Indonesians, or in exile in fellow ex-Portuguese colonies such as Mozambique, Angola and Macau.Diplomats think Gusmao – a popular President whose own threat to resign unless Alkatiri left office prompted the mini “people’s power” protests that led to Alkatiri’s resignation – wants a non-Fretilin premier to rule until elections next year.Alkatiri’s position was further undermined by a damaging Australian TV documentary earlier this month that linked him and other Fretilin leaders to an alleged plot to arm a civil militia.- Nampa-ReutersBut yesterday a Reuters correspondent travelled east of the city and saw the supporters had dispersed and retreated to the town of Metinaro, around 40 km away, where around just 1 500 remained, gathered in the grounds of a school.A huge convoy of anti-Alkatiri protesters left the capital westwards late yesterday at the end of over a week of mostly peaceful demonstrations.Residents and foreign peackeepers had feared the pro- and anti-Alkatiri protesters would meet and turn the sleepy seaside capital into a battleground, but the worries eased as night fell.But earlier, at least a dozen shops and dwellings – some no more than modest shacks – were torched as a simmering east-west divide in Asia’s youngest nation threatened to bubble over.The divide loosely mirrors a split in the armed forces that led Alkatiri to dismiss around 600 soldiers, mostly from the west, after they protested against discrimination two months ago.When rival factions of the army and police clashed, the violence spiralled into an orgy of arson and looting that only ended with the intervention of a 2 500-strong Australian-led intervention force.Australian army firemen fought fires at houses and shops across the city yesterday, and soldiers detained a handful of youths after separating stone-throwing gangs.Western Timorese are seen as having had Indonesian sympathies during the country’s often brutal colonial occupation.Easterners claim credit for fighting an insurgency that ended Jakarta’s rule.But divisions run deeper, with country’s political elite also divided along lines according to their liberation credentials – either spent fighting the Indonesians, or in exile in fellow ex-Portuguese colonies such as Mozambique, Angola and Macau.Diplomats think Gusmao – a popular President whose own threat to resign unless Alkatiri left office prompted the mini “people’s power” protests that led to Alkatiri’s resignation – wants a non-Fretilin premier to rule until elections next year.Alkatiri’s position was further undermined by a damaging Australian TV documentary earlier this month that linked him and other Fretilin leaders to an alleged plot to arm a civil militia.- Nampa-Reuters