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Las Vegas SUN

May 30, 2006

# East Timor Descends Further Into Chaos

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DILI, East Timor (AP) -

0530dvs-east-timor-violence East Timor's president said he was assuming emergency powers over national security Tuesday after machete-wielding mobs torched homes and ransacked buildings in the capital and desperate residents scuffled over scarce food.

What started as sporadic clashes between former soldiers and government troops has spiraled into open gang warfare. Violence has engulfed the capital, killing at least 27 people and wounding 100 others in the past week.

Youths fired slingshots at each other in running street battles as Australian troops tried without apparent success to quell the violence by halting and disarming gangs hiding their faces with T-shirts.

Aid workers expressed frustration at the insecurity despite the presence of more than 1,300 foreign troops from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

President Xanana Gusmao said he was assuming "sole responsibility" for the country's national security to "prevent violence and avoid further fatalities."

The announcement came shortly after Cabinet officials said the defense and interior ministers had been fired. Gusmao said the emergency measures would take effect immediately and be valid for 30 days.

With his government essentially not functioning and the armed troops in disarray, it was not clear if Gusmao's statement would have any impact on the chaos.

The East Timorese government said it was authorizing foreign troops to detain suspects for 72 hours, not just disarm them.

Earlier, Jose Ramos Horta, the country's Nobel Peace Prize-winning foreign minister, acknowledged the government had "failed miserably" to prevent the unrest.

He directed the blame toward Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, though officials present at Tuesday's meeting told The Associated Press that Alkatiri would be staying for the time being.

Outside the meetings, machete-wielding mobs torched houses and ransacked government offices, including the attorney general's, where they succeeded in breaking into the Serious Crimes Unit.

Files on the most prominent Indonesian defendants in the 1999 massacres that followed East Timor's bloody vote for independence were stolen, said Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro.

Asked if they had been specifically targeted in the looting, he replied: "We don't know."

Justice Minister Domingos Sarmento said a contingent of 120 paramilitary police from Portugal would help bolster the foreign force. The contingent is expected in the country by week's end, earlier than anticipated.

"Hopefully in two or three days the situation will improve," Sarmento told the AP.

On Tuesday, sporadic fighting was reported in some parts of the city and ambulances were seen ferrying injured people to a hospital. It was not clear how many had been hurt.

At a warehouse being used as a food distribution center, Australian troops struggled to keep order as thousands of residents fought to get bags of rice.

"We need more food. The situation is terrible," said Daniel Afonso, who fled his destroyed home with his parents and four children and was staying at a church refugee center. "It is dangerous to go out looking for food and the shops are closed."

The unrest was triggered by the March firing of 600 disgruntled soldiers from the 1,400-member army, who rioted last month before fleeing to set up positions in the hills surrounding the seaside capital.

Much of the antagonism on the streets revolves around accusations, often unfounded, that one person or another harbors sympathies for Indonesia, which pulled out of East Timor after its people voted overwhelming for independence in 1999 after a 24 years of often harsh rule.

The Indonesian military and its proxy militias responded by laying waste to the region, killing 1,500 Timorese and forcing 300,000 from their homes before an Australian-led force restored order.

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