Jill Jolliffe – Most of Dili's shops were closed and shuttered yesterday as about 2000 former guerrilla fighters put on a show of force against the Fretilin government of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The occasion was the 27th anniversary of the formation of Falintil (a Portuguese acronym for Armed Forces for the Liberation of Independent East Timor), the resistance army that fought Indonesian military occupation between 1975 and 1999.

The long haired, camouflage-clad force, which rolled into town in a large convoy from country districts on Sunday, held an unauthorised parade in central Dili yesterday.

The keynote speaker was former Baucau commander Oligari Aswain, who fiercly denounced European influence in East Timor's affairs and demanded a greater share of power for the veterans.

The demonstration was held to rival a government-sponsored Falintil anniversary celebration later in the day. The steam was taken off the show by the appearance of Bishop Carlos Belo and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta who urged the rebel veterans to talk to the government and reject violence.

The action was coordinated by the dissident CDP-RDTL party of Antonio Aitahan Matak, once described by UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello as an agitator in the pay of Indonesia.

Two members of his movement were arrested in 2001 for an alleged assassination bid against independence leader Xanana Gusmao, now President of East Timor. The accusations were later dropped.