Ruling party supporters descend on Timor capital

DAVID FOX DILI – Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri descended on the capital in a defiant show of strength yestersday as the president hinted he might unilaterally decide on a replacement.

As night fell, around 4 000 supporters of the ruling Fretilin party prepared to camp out near the main government buildings – scene of a week of similar-sized anti-Alkatiri protests that ended on Wednesday, two days after he resigned. They had travelled into Dili from the east in a convoy of around 190 trucks, buses and cars behind Australian armoured personnel carriers before circuiting the centre of the city.At the head of the convoy, a man carried a dead giant fruit bat stretched across a wooden frame.On its canvas-like wings, “Viva Alkatiri” and “Viva Fretilin” had been painted.Most of the city’s streets were deserted, with shops and businesses closed behind shutters.At times, it seemed as if the protesters were parading through a ghost town.A heavy contingent of Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers put up a tight security cordon around the protesters in the centre of town as they camped down for the night.Residents and foreign peacekeepers had feared pro- and anti-Alkatiri protesters would meet and turn the sleepy seaside capital into a battleground.The divide loosely mirrors an east-west split in Asia’s newest independent state that led Alkatiri to dismiss around 600 soldiers, mostly from the country’s 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 force.Alkatiri was blamed for that, but his fate was sealed by a damaging Australian TV documentary this month that linked him and other Fretilin leaders to an alleged plot to arm a civil militia.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.The majority of Dili’s residents are westerners.The divisions run deeper too, with country’s political elite separated 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.Fretilin holds 55 of parliament’s 88 seats.According to the constitution it has the right to nominate the next prime minister, and it is keen to retain the premiership.- Nampa-ReutersThey had travelled into Dili from the east in a convoy of around 190 trucks, buses and cars behind Australian armoured personnel carriers before circuiting the centre of the city.At the head of the convoy, a man carried a dead giant fruit bat stretched across a wooden frame.On its canvas-like wings, “Viva Alkatiri” and “Viva Fretilin” had been painted.Most of the city’s streets were deserted, with shops and businesses closed behind shutters.At times, it seemed as if the protesters were parading through a ghost town.A heavy contingent of Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers put up a tight security cordon around the protesters in the centre of town as they camped down for the night.Residents and foreign peacekeepers had feared pro- and anti-Alkatiri protesters would meet and turn the sleepy seaside capital into a battleground.The divide loosely mirrors an east-west split in Asia’s newest independent state that led Alkatiri to dismiss around 600 soldiers, mostly from the country’s 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 force.Alkatiri was blamed for that, but his fate was sealed by a damaging Australian TV documentary this month that linked him and other Fretilin leaders to an alleged plot to arm a civil militia.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.The majority of Dili’s residents are westerners.The divisions run deeper too, with country’s political elite separated 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.Fretilin holds 55 of parliament’s 88 seats.According to the constitution it has the right to nominate the next prime minister, and it is keen to retain the premiership.- Nampa-Reuters