Print this page Diggers stop Dili shoot-out Ian McPhedran Baucau 05jun06 AUSTRALIAN soldiers have cracked down on gangs after shooting broke out during a street fight in Dili. The Diggers moved in aggressively after rival gangs fired guns and threw rocks and other missiles, and let off tear gas in one of the city's hottest neighbourhoods just off the airport road. The crackdown came as 127 Portuguese riot and special operations police officers landed in Baucau, 120km east of the capital. Australia's Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said it was in the region's interest to ensure East Timor did not become a "failed state", which could turn into a haven for terrorists and criminals. "It's in all of our interests to see that we do not have failed states in our region," Dr Nelson said at a security and defence forum in Singapore. "We cannot afford to have Timor-Leste (East Timor) become one of those, and . . . become a haven, perhaps, for transnational crime, for terrorism and indeed humanitarian disasters and injustice." As flags continued to fly at half-mast at military barracks and police stations in Dili, another 35 Australian Federal Police arrived ahead of fresh contingents from New Zealand and Malaysia. Fighting continued and houses were torched again in Dili yesterday, but other parts of the country remained quiet. In Baucau police conducted patrols as normal. At the airport, where a Lockheed L1011 wide-bodied jet delivered the Portuguese police, their commander, Captain Concalco Carvalho, said his men would keep the gangs apart and stop the burning. The crack Portuguese paramilitaries, known as the GNR, are trained to quell riots and control serious incidents. "We will undertake 24-hour patrols," Captain Carvalho said. "They like us, they want us here and they think we are the police force they need." More than half of Dili's 150,000 residents have been driven out of their homes and live in dozens of cramped camps where they face food and water shortages. Aid workers report a mini baby boom with dozens of babies being born in the camps.
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