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Las Vegas SUN

May 28, 2006

# Rival Gangs Battle in East Timor Capital

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DILI, East Timor (AP) -

Rival gangs torched homes and battled each other with machetes in East Timor's capital Sunday, scattering and regrouping as Australian troops in armored vehicles rumbled toward the sound of gunfire.

Four people were were killed on the sixth day of violence that has sparked fears of civil war in one of the world's youngest nations, seven years after its traumatic break for independence from Indonesia.

One man burned to death while trying to defend his home, and the others were shot, witnesses and hospitals said. The weeklong violence has killed 27 people.

At least 27,000 people have sought refuge in Dili's airport, seaport, religious compounds and the U.N. headquarters, said Robert Ashe, regional representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Australian troops rumbled toward the sound of gunfire in armored personnel carriers, but seemed to only briefly scatter combatants.

The U.N. envoy to East Timor, Sukehiro Hasegawa, said more peacekeepers were needed to halt the violence, fueled by animosity between those who sympathized with Indonesian rule and those who didn't.

The U.N. has a tiny force of peacekeepers in East Timor and around 2,000 Australian troops were either on the ground or in transit. Australian sent the troops after East Timor's government said earlier this week it could not control the situation. New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal also agreed to help.

"It's a trickier operation than some people think," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "Nobody should assume that it's just a simple walk-in-the-park military operation - it's quite challenging."

With chaos spreading, the United Nations evacuated 300 nonessential staff to Australia. More than 100 international staff will stay in East Timor while others work from Australia, Hasegawa said.

Festering distrust between Timorese who supported independence and those who didn't fueled a months-long dispute between the military leadership and 600 renegade soldiers that exploded in this week's violence. The soldiers - nearly half the army - were fired in March after striking over complaints of poor working conditions and discrimination.

After engaging in deadly riots last month, the dismissed soldiers fled the seaside capital to set up camp in the surrounding hills and threatened guerrilla war if they weren't reinstated.

They ambushed troops in the capital Tuesday, setting off three days of gunbattles that led the government to request foreign help. Hundreds of peacekeepers from Australia and Malaysia began arriving Thursday to take up positions around Dili, but violence continued unabated.

Smoke billowed from the scenes of fighting Sunday, as hundreds flocked to church to pray and sing for an end to the violence.

Gangs of youths roamed through neighborhoods, smashing windows, torching cars and houses and attacking people in the streets with machetes, slinghots and spears.

One group severely beat a man they accused of hiding guns. Foreign reporters intervened, and he was rushed bleeding to a hospital by aid workers.

Julita Abuk, 30, fled with her four children as her home was destroyed. Her husband, a police commander, has been missing since a deadly shooting earlier in the week that killed 10 and wounded 29.

"Just a few minutes ago they burned down my house," she said, weeping at the airport where hundreds have sought refuge. "My cousin was there making breakfast and there were men in military uniforms with guns setting the house on fire."

"We lost everything we have."

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri called the violence "planned and opportunistic actions of gangs" that he said was part of a plot to overthrow his government.

The general population has split between those with ties to the western part of the country, which borders Indonesia and has perceived sympathies to the former ruler, and those allied with the east, which favored independence.

Australia said Sunday it will also send up to 50 federal police officers within 24 hours to help contain the marauding gangs in Dili. The police reinforcements will join 15 officers already in the capital, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said.

Impoverished East Timor, a Portuguese colony for about four centuries until it was occupied by Indonesia in 1976, has received millions of dollars in international aid over the last seven years, much of it focused on building up the military.

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