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Clash with Portuguese underlines resentment

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - February 1, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili – An argument over a traffic infringement sparked an ugly brawl between East Timorese university students and Portuguese riot police yesterday, underscoring growing resentment at the United Nations mission and heavy-handed police tactics.

Witnesses said the fight began when Portuguese riot police tried to arrest an East Timorese taxi driver who had entered a one-way street behind the headquarters of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The riot police, known as GNR, smashed the taxi's windows as they tried to remove the driver from the car.

His passenger was later identified as Christiano Da Costa, an official of the RDTL party, whose supporters have been blamed by the UN for a spate of recent clashes with political rivals. A violent struggle attracted the attention of hundreds of university students whose classrooms overlooked the scene.

When a GNR officer fired two warning shots to force the students off the street, they responded by hurling stones and lumps of concrete at the police and nearby UNTAET offices. As a hail of rocks crashed through office windows, UN staff fled.

The incident has fuelled mounting resentment at the Portuguese riot police, a no-nonsense unit based in Dili and armed with submachine-guns and tactical shotguns.

For many students, the GNR's strongarm tactics smack of resurgent colonial oppression by the Portuguese. "Don't treat us like militia," one student yelled, referring to the pro-Jakarta mobs who ransacked Dili after the 1999 ballot for self-determination.

"Don't speak Portuguese, we don't understand you – speak Indonesian," yelled others, referring to the unpopular decision by senior independence leaders to adopt Portuguese as the official East Timorese language.

Following a tense stand-off, the crowd dispersed when UN Civilian Police and their East Timorese counterparts arrived.

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