For ILV & WMS

[minionofmidas]

East Timor leader calls for calm 
 
Foreign peacekeepers have already had some effect
East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has appealed for calm to end rampant mob violence in the fledgling country.
"Stop this fighting that is dividing us," Mr Gusmao told crowds outside the presidential palace, where he held crisis talks with the Cabinet.

Among the crowds were protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who is blamed by many East Timorese for the unrest.

Australia says troops it sent last week had had an immediate effect.

Witnesses said some houses were burned in parts of the capital, Dili, on Monday morning, but that the city was generally quieter.

But thousands of people have fled their homes and aid agencies say their supplies are being looted.

Monday's Cabinet meeting was the first face-to-face meeting between Mr Gusmao and Mr Alkatiri - who are known to have differences - since foreign peacekeepers stepped in.

"Alkatiri is a terrorist! We will kill him! Viva Gusmao!" protesters shouted.

The immediate cause of the unrest was the sacking by Mr Alkatiri of 600 striking soldiers in March.

The soldiers, who were mainly from the west of the country, complained of discrimination against them by leaders from the east.

The sacking has led to ethnic and regional violence, with gangs - toting guns and machetes - torching houses and vehicles.

Around 100 youths broke into a food warehouse run by the World Food Programme in the capital, Dili, on Monday and carried off bags of rice, past hundreds of people who had queued for hours for handouts, AFP news agency reported.

Australian aid agency World Vision said the violence and looting threatened the distribution of food and water supplies to 25,000 internal refugees, and called for more forthright intervention by Australian troops.

"Our staff here have been under fire," World Vision chief Tim Costello said.

"I came here fully expecting... I'd see a couple of soldiers on each street corner, which would settle everything down. That's not the case, you still see the gangs of young people just looting."

Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said commanders on the ground had met military and political leaders in East Timor to request that their rules of engagement be strengthened.

Capital calmer

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has admitted that the government's failure to address discontent in the security forces was one of the main causes of the violence, which has threatened to escalate into civil war.

Mr Gusmao and Mr Alkatiri are reported to differ in the solutions they favour. The president wants the rebel soldiers to be reinstated while their grievances are investigated, but for the military as a whole to disarm for the moment and foreign troops to take charge, sources close to the government told the Associated Press.

The prime minister, however, is said to have opposed foreign intervention, and wants the rebel soldiers to disarmed and the rest of the security forces to resume work as soon as possible.

While Mr Gusmao is seen as a charismatic hero of East Timor's fight for independence from Indonesia, Mr Alkatiri - who spent a long period in exile - is seen as cold and aloof, correspondents say.

At least 20 people are reported to have been killed in the violence.

The death toll includes 10 unarmed police officers whom the East Timorese military suspected of aiding the rebels and were shot dead by troops.

UN envoy Sukehiro Hasegawa called on Monday for a full investigation into the incident.

The Red Cross said as many as 50,000 people had fled their homes to escape the violence, and aid agencies are predicting a humanitarian crisis unless order is restored soon.

[minionofmidas]

And an earlier article...

E Timor troops riot over sacking 
 
Police led away protesters they thought were involved in rioting
Hundreds of former East Timorese soldiers have rioted in protest at their dismissal from the army.
On the third day of demonstrations in the capital Dili, soldiers and their supporters threw missiles at buildings and market stalls.

Nearly 600 soldiers went absent without leave last month to protest against their working conditions and what they called favouritism in promotions.

The government sacked them all - about a third of the total defence force.

East Timor police chief Paulo de Fatima Martins said dozens of former soldiers broke away from the rally on Wednesday and started throwing stones at buildings and attacking market stalls with sticks.

Hundreds of police from nearby towns were called in, he told the Associated Press, and five people were arrested.

It was not clear if they were soldiers or civilian protesters.

Resentment

Some of the demonstrators invaded houses, the AFP news agency reported.

"I was with my sleeping child when the house was suddenly attacked by people, some wearing fatigues," homeowner Lorenca Miranda said.

"I also saw three policemen in the area run away when the attack was taking place," she said.

The soldiers - many of them from western districts of the country - originally left their posts because they believed they were missing out on promotion to colleagues from the east, according to protest leader Gastao Salsinha.

Many of the troops, who are veterans of the 25-year fight for independence from Indonesia, feel they have not been given the recognition they deserve for their past sacrifices, say analysts.

East Timor's foreign minister said the government would review some of the soldiers' complaints on a case-by-case basis.

The dismissal of nearly 600 soldiers is a serious blow to the army, which numbers only about 1,400 personnel.

A recent UN report said that although East Timor had made some impressive gains in recent years, it also had deeply entrenched problems and is the poorest country in the region.

[ilikeverin]

Somaliland should send troops to aid East Timor

[Platypus]

Somaliland should send troops to aid East Timor

Australia already has

[ilikeverin]

Somaliland should send troops to aid East Timor

Australia already has

Australia≠Somaliland

[WMS]

Bloody hell, you wouldn't think there would even be any cleavages to split the country on, but they've managed to find one anyway.

Somaliland should send troops to aid East Timor

I think they need them to defend against the nefarious Puntland.

[minionofmidas]

Somaliland should send troops to aid East Timor

Australia already has

Actually that should be an - Australia will not be considered neutral in this conflict (nor will Portugal), and sending Australians as peacekeepers originally is basically part of the problem, so I don't think sending more Australians now is optimal. In a sense it's the second worst they could have done (worst being, of course, Indonesians.)