International peacekeepers arrive in East Timor as gunbattles rage in capital
Guido Guilliard
Canadian Press
Friday, May 26, 2006
Australian soldiers take position upon arrival at the airport in Dili, East Timor. (AP Photo/Amori Antonio)
Australian soldiers walk off their transport plane as they arrive at Dili's airport Thursday. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)
DILI, East Timor (AP) - Soldiers fired on unarmed police in East Timor's capital Thursday, killing nine and wounding 27, as international troops landed to try and end fighting that threatens to push the country closer to civil war. Among the wounded were two United Nations police advisers, part of UN staff trying to end an hour-long attack by soldiers on the national police headquarters in Dili, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York City. The UN police and military advisers negotiated a ceasefire with the Timorese soldiers, under which the police officers were to surrender their weapons and leave the building, Dujarric said. "As the unarmed police were being escorted out, army soldiers opened fire on them killing nine and wounding 27 others, including two UN police advisers," he said. The shooting brought to 14 the death toll of recent fighting between the country's 800-member army and a band of about 600 dismissed soldiers. However, Dujarric said the soldiers who attacked the police headquarters were army troops and not dismissed soldiers. There was no immediate explanation of why army members would attack police. UN personnel evacuated the wounded. An unspecified number were critically injured and hospitalized. "The mission reports that UN personnel were able to rescue some 62 additional East Timor police officers and they are now being sheltered in the UN compound," Dujarric said. No further details of the attack were immediately available. The UN Security Council scheduled consultations Thursday afternoon on the worsening violence - the most serious to hit East Timor since its bloody break with Indonesia in 1999. Hundreds of people at East Timor's main airport cheered earlier in the day as an Australian plane delivered the first international troops sent to keep the country from civil war. Some cried and shouted "Thank God!" The 130 Australian soldiers fanned out to secure the airport as fierce gunbattles raged elsewhere in the capital, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen. Australia said it will send up to 1,300 troops, along with ships, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers. New Zealand said it is sending 60 police and soldiers. Portugal, which colonized East Timor for four centuries, until 1975, also was sending 120 paramilitary police. Malaysia pledged 500. Australia led a multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor in 1999 that ended a rampage by Indonesian troops and militia after the former Indonesian province voted for independence. Some 1,500 people died. "Welcome Aussie soldiers, please help us once again," said Judit Isaac, a 47-year-old housewife. Meanwhile, homes and business were torched and plumes of smoke rose over virtually deserted streets. Two former soldiers and an army captain were killed, said the military and a spokesman for the ex-soldiers. Fourteen ex-soldiers were wounded, as was a South Korean bystander who was shot in the neck. East Timor, the newest member of the UN, has been plagued by unrest since more than 40 per cent of its armed forces were fired in March after going on strike to protest against alleged discrimination in the military. The crisis stems in part from the rush to create an army following East Timor's independence from Indonesia. The army was set up by Australian and Portuguese military advisers, who often were at odds over training methods, language and the selection of officers. Critics said veterans of the independence struggle - the renegade soldiers among them - often were passed over for key positions. The ex-soldiers also said they were discriminated against because they came from the country's west, while the military leadership hails from the east. Some hardliners fled the capital last month after participating in deadly riots, threatening guerrilla warfare from surrounding hillsides if they were not reinstated. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, travelling in Vietnam, telephoned regional leaders to discuss the unrest and sent the head of the UN Human Rights Mission in Nepal to Dili to assess the situation firsthand, Dujarric said. Mission head Ian Martin served as the secretary general's special representative in East Timor in 1999. The fighting prompted the government to ask for international troops earlier this week. The commander of the renegade forces - whom East Timor's top military chief said he wants captured dead or alive - said bringing in peacekeepers was the only way to prevent civil war. "This is the only solution," Maj. Alfredo Reinado said in an interview with the BBC. "There is no other way, or it will be war forever." Preparing for the worst, dozens of foreigners fled the country. The U.S. Embassy has ordered the evacuation of all non-essential personnel and advised U.S. citizens in the country to leave. Indonesia ruled East Timor with an iron fist for 24 years. Human rights groups said as many as 200,000 were killed under the occupation. © The Canadian Press 2006

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