Baucau – A mob, including some former guerrilla fighters, ransacked police headquarters and damaged several vehicles in East Timor's second city, Baucau, Monday morning, before being routed by reinforced Timorese and UN police.
Unconfirmed reports said one person had been killed and several wounded in an exchange of gunfire. In Dili the government convened an urgent meeting. It dispatched a medical team and security reinforcements, including a 60-strong unit of Portuguese UN peacekeepers, to Baucau, 200 kms east of the capital.
It is the third time Portuguese peacekeeping troops have been called to assist in dealing with civil disturbances in Timor in the last two weeks, the chief-of-staff of the armed forces said in Lisbon.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, in comments to Lusa, said the Baucau attack and other recent incidents pitting mobs against police could "only be organized actions by a group or groups with some coordination". "I'm worried, but I continue to say that the situation can and will be controlled", Alkatiri added.
He acknowledged the unrest could be linked to recent comments by Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato. Lobato went public recently in support of new criteria for recruitment to the police force, saying priority should be given to former nationalist guerrillas, rather than to officers who gained experience under Indonesian occupation, a criteria which had been used in part by the transition UN administration.
By early afternoon, police in Baucau said order had been "largely restored". "There was significant material damage", one officer told Lusa. "Many vehicles and the [police headquarters] building were struck by the fury of the attackers", estimated to number between 200 and 300, some armed with guns, others with knives and machetes.
Sources said a number of former anti-Indonesian Falintil guerrillas had been spotted in the mob. Contacted by Lusa, Portuguese teacher Cristiana Casimiro said she and her 21 other Portuguese colleagues in Baucau were safe. Casimiro said police, expecting trouble, had warned them Sunday to remain at home. Shops and government offices closed when the rampage erupted during the morning.
Tensions had been high, observers said, since a policeman was wounded by a machete blow November 15 when police forcibly dismantled an improvised road toll barrier set up by an unidentified group near Baucau. On Sunday, the home of a suspected leader of that group was burned down in an apparent revenge attack.