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The World Today - Houses and cars burnt in Dili riots
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1627906.htm]
The World Today - Monday, 1 May , 2006 12:26:00
Reporter: Peter Cave
ELEANOR HALL: In East Timor, the May Day holiday has brought some respite, for now at least, from the increasingly violent demonstrations which have wracked the capital.
The violence, which has killed at least five people, injured scores more and destroyed many houses and markets was sparked by the sacking by the Government of more than 600 men from the armed forces.
The ABC's Foreign Editor Peter Cave has taken advantage of the holiday lull to drive through the streets where the violence had occurred. He joins me now on the line.
So, Peter, what can you see of the aftermath of the riots?
PETER CAVE: Well, Eleanor, I'm in the marketplace in Taci Tolo, which is where the killings happened on Friday and Saturday. The place is deserted at the moment. This area has been sealed off by the Army for the past few days.
What's in front of me is what's left of the village. There are scores of houses, small huts, a shanty town sort of village that's basically been torched, burnt to the ground. Across the road there's a minibus and a couple of cars that've been torched.
The people are just starting to come back in. Basically what happened is after the demonstrations in Dili on Friday the demonstrators moved out to this place, which is a few kilometres out of the centre of Dili, and started attacking houses belonging to people from the east of the country, people who associated with the Army.
There was a big army base just up the road, I've just come back from there, that's been reactivated.
The Army sort of moved in here, sealed the place off on (inaudible) night. There was a lot of shooting that went on during Friday night and Saturday. That's when at least four people were killed. Local people here say probably about 10 people were killed as the Army came in.
Most of the people who took part in that riot have either… are amongst the 50 or 60 who are injured in hospital at the moment, or they've taken to the hills. A lot of those people are young unemployed people. Many of them are among the five or six hundred soldiers who went AWOL and then deserted the Army.
ELEANOR HALL: So, Peter, is this simply a protest about the sacking of the soldiers? To what extent is ethnic division coming into it?
PETER CAVE: Look, I'm fairly newly arrived here. I've been talking to people since I arrived, and the general feeling seems to be it's more about the ethnic division, which is basically what was at the heart of what happened in the military.
A lot of the military are people from the east of the country, largely Melanesian. A lot of the commanders of the military are from that area, and basically, you know, the people from the rest of the country claimed these people were running the Army as a (inaudible) fiefdom.
There was discrimination against them, and a lot of those people from the west of the country, from the Dili area, you know, they were the people who left the Army.
So it's probably based around the ethnic division.
ELEANOR HALL: So how serious a threat does it pose to the Alkatiri Government?
PETER CAVE: Well, it is a serious threat. I mean, you know, the scale of the violence has been quite large in and around Dili, certainly not in the rest of the country, but there are 19 people who are going to face court tomorrow.
There's a commission of inquiry, probably the fifth or sixth commission of inquiry into similar things about to be launched tomorrow.
As you say, it's a public holiday here. The streets have been reopened, the police and Army are off the streets. People are starting to filter back into this area, which has just been totally devastated.
What will happen over the coming days really depends on how firm a control the Government has of the Army and the police, whether the police are going to be pitted against the Army, whether these people who've taken to the hills from this area after Friday and Saturday night managed to arm themselves. I mean, you could conceivably have the start of an insurgency after this.
ELEANOR HALL: Peter Cave, we'll certainly be speaking to you in the next couple of days, thank you.
The violence, which has killed at least five people, injured scores more and destroyed many houses and markets was sparked by the sacking by the Government of more than 600 men from the armed forces.
The ABC's Foreign Editor Peter Cave has taken advantage of the holiday lull to drive through the streets where the violence had occurred. He joins me now on the line.
So, Peter, what can you see of the aftermath of the riots?
PETER CAVE: Well, Eleanor, I'm in the marketplace in Taci Tolo, which is where the killings happened on Friday and Saturday. The place is deserted at the moment. This area has been sealed off by the Army for the past few days.
What's in front of me is what's left of the village. There are scores of houses, small huts, a shanty town sort of village that's basically been torched, burnt to the ground. Across the road there's a minibus and a couple of cars that've been torched.
The people are just starting to come back in. Basically what happened is after the demonstrations in Dili on Friday the demonstrators moved out to this place, which is a few kilometres out of the centre of Dili, and started attacking houses belonging to people from the east of the country, people who associated with the Army.
There was a big army base just up the road, I've just come back from there, that's been reactivated.
The Army sort of moved in here, sealed the place off on (inaudible) night. There was a lot of shooting that went on during Friday night and Saturday. That's when at least four people were killed. Local people here say probably about 10 people were killed as the Army came in.
Most of the people who took part in that riot have either… are amongst the 50 or 60 who are injured in hospital at the moment, or they've taken to the hills. A lot of those people are young unemployed people. Many of them are among the five or six hundred soldiers who went AWOL and then deserted the Army.
ELEANOR HALL: So, Peter, is this simply a protest about the sacking of the soldiers? To what extent is ethnic division coming into it?
PETER CAVE: Look, I'm fairly newly arrived here. I've been talking to people since I arrived, and the general feeling seems to be it's more about the ethnic division, which is basically what was at the heart of what happened in the military.
A lot of the military are people from the east of the country, largely Melanesian. A lot of the commanders of the military are from that area, and basically, you know, the people from the rest of the country claimed these people were running the Army as a (inaudible) fiefdom.
There was discrimination against them, and a lot of those people from the west of the country, from the Dili area, you know, they were the people who left the Army.
So it's probably based around the ethnic division.
ELEANOR HALL: So how serious a threat does it pose to the Alkatiri Government?
PETER CAVE: Well, it is a serious threat. I mean, you know, the scale of the violence has been quite large in and around Dili, certainly not in the rest of the country, but there are 19 people who are going to face court tomorrow.
There's a commission of inquiry, probably the fifth or sixth commission of inquiry into similar things about to be launched tomorrow.
As you say, it's a public holiday here. The streets have been reopened, the police and Army are off the streets. People are starting to filter back into this area, which has just been totally devastated.
What will happen over the coming days really depends on how firm a control the Government has of the Army and the police, whether the police are going to be pitted against the Army, whether these people who've taken to the hills from this area after Friday and Saturday night managed to arm themselves. I mean, you could conceivably have the start of an insurgency after this.
ELEANOR HALL: Peter Cave, we'll certainly be speaking to you in the next couple of days, thank you.
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