East Timor’s PM Mari Alkatiri has told the BBC he will not resign, despite being blamed for not ending the unrest which has paralysed the capital Dili.
Mr Alkatiri also disputed whether President Xanana Gusmao, who announced emergency rule on Tuesday, was now in sole charge of the country’s security.
Dili was calmer on Wednesday, though some arson and fighting continued.
Fifteen major aid donors to East Timor, including foreign governments, urged rival groups to stop their feuding.
Mr Alkatiri has been blamed by other members of the government for failing to stop the violence, which was triggered by his decision to sack of hundreds of troops after they went on strike.
Related:
* In Pictures ~ BBC
* How to end crisis: Timor rebel chief speaks out ~ The Age.au
* NZ troops arrive in East Timor ~ TVNZ.nz
* Unrest in East Timor hinders aid ~ Sapa & AFP
* Country profile: East Timor ~ BBC
* Behind The Chaos and Picture Gallery, ~ Herald Sun.au
all links add by moi
Ministers forced to resign, violence threat rises
Lindsay Murdoch and Tom Allard, Dili
June 2, 2006
TWO of East Timor’s most powerful ministers resigned from the embattled Government yesterday, risking more violence if security forces loyal to Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato take revenge for his forced exit.
Mr Lobato, who has built a strong personal security network, resigned along with Defence Minister Roque Rodrigues, after intense pressure from President Xanana Gusmao.
The upheaval in East Timor’s increasingly unstable and unpopular Government came as Mr Gusmao emerged in public for only the second time since Dili was engulfed by bloodshed, urging the warring factions to forgive each other. There also was looting at a food warehouse, more gang violence and increasing concerns about the risk of disease due to the poor sanitation in the camps housing up to 70,000 refugees.
Mr Gusmao demanded the ministers’ resignations to satisfy public outrage at the Government’s mishandling of grievances by disgruntled soldiers, which led to violent clashes in Dili. It took almost a week of intense negotiations for him to get the outcome he wanted.
Fighting back tears after tendering his resignation, Mr Lobato said that forces he was unwilling to name were behind weeks of violence that had brought the country to the brink of civil war.
Asked who was stoking the violence, Mr Lobato said journalists should investigate. “You will easily find who is behind this,” he said.
Asked whether the culprits included President Gusmao, Mr Lobato replied: “I don’t want to make accusations. The main purpose of this conflict is to topple the Government. They have resorted to undemocratic means, and they have resorted to violence and death.”
As minister responsible for East Timor’s police, Mr Lobato has been accused of provoking internal conflicts to enhance his power. He rejects this.
Asked whether his supporters would accept the resignations that Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri announced in a televised address to the nation, Mr Lobato said: “They must accept for the wellbeing of the country and the safety of the people.” Last week six of Mr Lobato’s close relatives, a woman and her five children, were killed in a fire that engulfed their house as mobs attacked it in a Dili suburb.
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CSM
Why East Timor is falling apart
Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado called Thursday for the prime minister’s exit.
By Nick Squires | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
DILI, EAST TIMOR – Emerging from the still smoking ruins of her neighborhood in Dili, Rita Mesquita was in no doubt as to who is responsible for the arson, looting, and gun battles that have plunged East Timor’s capital into chaos.
“I blame the prime minister for the destruction and all the tragedy here,” the 45-year-old mother says, angrily pointing at the burned-out remains of tin-roofed houses. “He’s the worst man I know.”
Mrs. Mesquita is not alone. As vicious ethnic unrest roils the country, requiring an Australian-led expeditionary force to descend on Asia’s poorest country for the second time in less than a decade, there is a widespread perception that Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri bears much of the responsibility.
From the streets of Dili to the mountains of the interior, many say his government’s handling of a recent standoff within the army is indicative of the favoritism, corruption, and arrogance that they say has plagued East Timor’s government since the nation gained independence in 2002.
Instead of listening to the grievances of the 600 soldiers that went on strike in March to protest alleged ethnic discrimination, the government sacked them. The move has provoked successive waves of tit-for-tat violence, and the renegade troops have taken to the hills and remain in a tense face-off with the government.
“Alkatiri is a criminal and should face justice,” says the rebels’ charismatic young leader, Lieutenant Commander Alfredo Reinado, as he paces the verandah of the hill-top Portuguese-era villa he has commandeered as rebel headquarters. Thursday, he said there will be no end to the crisis unless the prime minister resigns.
A Portuguese-speaking sophisticate, Mr. Alkatiri appears to have difficulty connecting with the mass of East Timorese, who speak more than 30 local languages. Many regard him as arrogant, aloof, and dictatorial. He also lacks credibility: Unlike President Xanana Gusmao, who devoted years to fighting the occupying Indonesian military from jungle hideouts, Alkatiri spent the same period in exile in Mozambique.
Indonesia had invaded the country after a civil war in the early 1970s. Up to 180,000 people are estimated to have died in the ensuing 24-year occupation, with the Indonesian military conducting a scorched-earth policy against East Timorese guerilla fighters.
The tiny country – which spent 400 years as a neglected Portuguese colonial backwater – voted overwhelmingly for independence in 1999, unleashing a wave of violence and destruction of infrastructure by Indonesian soldiers and pro-Jakarta militias.
Seven years on, the national solidarity that garnered much praise internationally appears to be in tatters. Lt. Cdr. Reinado and his renegade troops, which constitute half the army, have deserted their posts and are hiding out in the mountainous interior, supported by elements of the police.
They accuse Alkatiri of shooting of five unarmed protesters in Dili last month – charges that Alkatiri denies. Gangs of disenfranchised youths armed with machetes, swords, and even bows and arrows, have embarked on a series of tit-for-tat attacks, and Dili’s ramshackle neighborhoods have been set alight.
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E Timor’s Horta ‘to end unrest’
East Timor’s Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta is to take over as the troubled country’s security chief.
The move follows President Xanana Gusmao’s sacking of the discredited defence and interior ministers, and is designed to end weeks of violence.
The capital, Dili, was reported to be calmer on Friday.
But in one incident, hundreds of people looted a government building, taking computers and other office equipment.
Mr Ramos Horta told Australian radio his priority was to end feuding within and between the security forces that has prompted weeks of violence.
“I’m the only one who might be able to heal the wounds within the armed forces, between the armed forces and the police force, between the armed forces and society at large,” he told ABC.
The violence was triggered by the sacking of 600 troops in March. Fighting between the army and the rebel troops then spread to include the police and rival gangs, before a 2,500-strong international force arrived to keep order.
It was not clear whether Mr Ramos’ appointment would be enough to satisfy the rebel troops.
On Thursday, one of their leaders called for the resignation of the Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, who the rebels blame for the sackings.
Mr Alkatiri again refused to resign on Friday, saying the rebel troops should hand in their weapons.
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Protest rally against E Timor PM
About 2,000 anti-government protesters have converged on the East Timorese capital, Dili.
They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, whom they blame for sacking hundreds of striking soldiers in March.
The protests came amid further unrest and looting, which has prompted tens of thousands of residents to flee.
International peacekeepers are struggling to control the violence, which has left at least 20 people dead.
TENSIONS MOUNT
Feb: More than 400 troops strike over pay and conditions
March: Government sacks nearly 600 of 1,400-man army
April: Rioting by sacked troops leaves five people dead
May: Violence intensifies, with battles between gangs from east and west of the country
24 May: Government asks foreign troops to take control
The protesters came to Dili on motorcycles, trucks and buses from western districts of East Timor.
Foreign peacekeepers searched their vehicles and, after negotiations, allowed them into Dili, but under the escort of heavily armed troops.
The demonstrators shouted “Down with Alkatiri!” as they punched the air and waved anti-government banners and flags.
After the rally reached the government offices, its leader Augusto Araujo Taro met President Xanana Gusmao to explain the demonstrators’ demands.
Mr Gusmao made an emotional appeal to the crowd, before asking them to return home “because there are many problems that have to be solved”.
Embattled PM
Mr Alkatiri has refused to step down, despite being widely criticised for not doing enough to end the recent unrest.
He sees the unrest as a political plot by his opponents to bring down his government, says the BBC’s Phil Mercer in Sydney.
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