DILI : Crack Australian troops landed in East Timor as new
fighting between the military and rebel soldiers forced thousands
to flee the worst violence since independence four years ago.
Gun battles in the capital Dili and elsewhere left two people dead
as Asia's poorest nation slipped closer to chaos, and Timorese
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said the troops would help restore
order.
"Their support will ... restore the confidence of the people,
enabling the return of the country to its normal life as soon as
possible," he said in a statement.
The violence first erupted last month when 600 of East Timor's
1,400 troops were dismissed after they deserted, complaining of
alleged discrimination because they came from the western part of
the country.
The leader of the rebels, Major Alfredo Reinado, was quoted saying
he did not want to topple the government but insisted that foreign
troops were the only way to prevent civil war.
"This is the only solution," he told the BBC. "There is no other
way, or it will be war forever. The government has taken too long.
It is not capable of resolving this."
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the first wave of
commandos, who arrived in mid-afternoon, would secure Dili's
airport and help try to stabilise the tiny nation, with 1,300
troops expected in all.
"It's our expectation that this will ensure the airport remains
open and functioning normally," Howard said.
Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday
asked Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal to send in
forces.
Portugal, the former colonial power, pledged to send paramilitary
police, while Malaysian defence officials said that troops and
police would be deployed. There was no immediate decision from New
Zealand.
Alkatiri said a group of 50 anti-riot Malaysian policemen were due
in Dili later Thursday, and that advance groups of military and
police from New Zealand and Portugal should arrive in the next few
days.
An AFP reporter said fighting subsided in the centre of Dili but
was continuing in the suburbs. One gang of youths was seen armed
with knives and daggers, and intermittent gunfights could be heard
on Dili's outskirts.
The Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency said a report on
the UN radio communications network had spoken of 20 injured police
and "many dead," but the report could not be independently
confirmed.
The report said "a lot of ambulances" were needed.
AAP said the first contingent of Australian troops fanned out to
secure the perimeter of the airport but it was not clear how many
had arrived.
A Timorese statement put the figure at 100, while AAP said it was
50.
Accompanying the first group was vice chief of the Australian
defence force Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie, who was to
negotiate the rules of engagement in talks with East Timor
government officials.
An official in the office of President Xanana Gusmao said an army
captain had been killed in the town of Liquica, west of Dili. A
police officer was killed but it was not immediately known
where.
"His body was riddled with bullets," said a doctor from Valaders
state hospital. Two people had been killed earlier in the
week.
A South Korean caught in the crossfire was shot in the neck and was
to undergo surgery, Seoul's ambassador here said.
The United Nations said it had set up a camp for around 1,000
refugees in the capital.
As the Australian troops headed in, refugees were headed out,
telling of running battles in and around Dili, using everything
from rifles to slingshots and machetes.
"They are absolutely petrified, scared and apprehensive in the
extreme that there's going to be some sort of civil war," Margaret
Gray, who fled the country on Wednesday, told Australian
radio.
Ramos-Horta, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 while helping
to lead the movement for independence from Indonesia, said "tens of
thousands" of people had taken shelter in and around Dili.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was invaded in 1975 by
Indonesia, which held the territory until 1999, when a vote for
independence descended into brutal violence by Indonesia troops and
pro-Jakarta militias.
Australia led a UN-backed intervention force to stop the bloodshed,
and the territory was run by the United Nations until independence
in 2002.
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