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# Troops fiddle while Dili burns and gangs roam

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Torched … a building set alight by gangs burns in the Dili suburb of Comoro.
Photo: Jason South

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili
June 5, 2006

"FIRE, fire, the house is going up," the Australian combat soldier carrying an automatic rifle yells into his radio.

But seconds later his group of six men is ordered out of the area and they run 50 metres back to their armoured personnel carrier, which roars away.

As the fire engulfs the house, and then a row of adjoining houses, the youths who lit it clap, cheer and pose for television cameras.

"Yes, burn them all," screams Joao da Silva, 24.

The battle of the Dili suburb of Comoro erupts like clockwork each morning and afternoon under the noses of heavily armed Australian troops who appear incapable of stopping it.

"It's essentially a gang turf war," said an Australian officer who asked not to be named.

"It's just as frustrating for the Australian soldiers as it is for you guys watching it. They are putting on a show for the cameras."

As the daily battle erupts, Australian Black Hawk helicopters hover overheard, while armoured personnel carriers and vehicles packed with Australian soldiers rumble past.

An Australian defence expert, John Hunter Farrell, who watched the battle unfold yesterday, said the Australians were inappropriately prepared.

"They came ready to use lethal force in a war situation but what's happening now is a law and order problem," he said. "They need riot shields, tear gas and rubber bullets to control the violent mobs."

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, made clear at the end of a weekend four-hour visit to Dili that Australia wanted its 1300 combat soldiers withdrawn from Dili's streets as soon as possible.

"The sooner it's going to be possible to have the day-to-day law and order issues handled by the police, the better," Mr Downer said after being briefed by the Australian peacekeeping commander, Mick Slater.

Thirty-five Australian police arrived in Dili on Saturday, bringing to more than 100 the number that were in East Timor. Malaysia has promised to send 250 police, and a crack 120-strong Portuguese paramilitary police squad was expected to arrive in Dili today.

Mr Downer also called for the United Nations to expand its role in the country, including sending more international police.

Under the Australian soldiers' rule of engagement they have the authority to disarm and detain anybody they see committing a crime. But only about 30 people have been arrested since the force arrived in Dili on May 26 and most were quickly released.

The Herald interviewed several who complained that the Australians left them at night in unsafe parts of Dili kilometres from where they lived. Fernado Pinto said that where he was dropped was "so dangerous for me to walk to my place that I had to sleep in the grass … I was very afraid".

Australian military spokesmen in Dili refused to reveal details about where the detainees were taken or what orders were given regarding their treatment.

Mario da Cruz, 45, is one of the oldest members of the Comoro gang that comprises people from western parts of the country who are pitted against a gang made up of people from the east.

A church worker with a wife and three children, he said he joined the gang attacking the property of easterners because they threatened his family, who were sheltering in a church.

"They have weapons … why did the military give civilians weapons? Why did they not give us weapons," he said. "My family does not have enough to eat because of this problem. We cannot go home. Our houses are being targeted."

Manuel Carrascala is one of Dili's political elite. He watched as a Timorese fire brigade, accompanied by Australian soldiers, arrived too late to put out the fires that the first Australians on the scene abandoned.

"I am very sad that the international forces cannot stop this very serious situation," he said.

"We have seen many sad things happen here. When will the suffering end?"

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Torched &#133; a building set alight by gangs burns in the Dili suburb of Comoro.
470 309 Jason South

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