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S&P/ASX 200 Index Rises, Led by BHP Billiton and Zinifex as Metals Climb Foster's, Lion Nathan May Bid for Independent Distillers, Investors Say Australian April Retail Sales Probably Rose 0.3 Percent, Survey Indicates
Australia Sends Police Unit to East Timor as Violence Continues May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Australia sent an extra 45 police officers to East Timor today to deal with lawlessness by gangs, as international peacekeeping forces try to calm unrest by former soldiers that has claimed 12 lives. More than 2,200 international troops, including 1,300 Australian soldiers, are in the capital, Dili, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said. New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal have also sent troops. ``The situation is still very dangerous,'' Nelson told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ``We have sent an extra 45 officers.'' Australian soldiers will disarm gang members and former soldiers today, Nelson said. East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri asked for international help last week in the wake of riots by former soldiers, angry at the dismissal of about 600 servicemen for desertion. The riots were sparked by alleged discrimination against soldiers from the western region by officers from the east of the country. Rival ethnic gangs, armed with daggers, machetes and slingshots, rioted in Dili May 26, setting cars and homes on fire. As many as 50,000 people have lost their homes and are living in makeshift camps across East Timor, the Australian Red Cross said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. ``This is quite a dangerous operation,'' Prime Minister John Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ``There are a whole lot of disparate, uncontrolled gangs.'' A mob broke into a warehouse run by the United Nations World Food Program in Dili today, looting supplies of rice, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified witnesses. The UN is evacuating 390 officials to the northern Australian city of Darwin, keeping about 50 people in East Timor. East Timor, or Timor-Leste, a country of about 1 million people, voted for independence in a 1999 referendum after a 24- year occupation by Indonesia, which invaded the territory when it was a Portuguese colony in 1975. The country, which became independent in May 2002, lies about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Australia.
    To contact the reporter on this story:
    Gemma Daley in Canberra at  gdaley@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 28, 2006 21:33 EDT
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