Mark Dod – East Timor is Asia's poorest country. Its President, former guerilla fighter and national resistance hero Xanana Gusmao, says money is urgently needed to build hospitals, schools and stamp out endemic poverty.
It raises questions about why the need for so many guns and who is paying for them. Since its founding in 2000, the national police force (PNTL) has obtained a wide variety of weaponry, including 2700 Glock 9mm pistols, for its ordinary police officers.
Under Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, no friend of President Gusmao, who enjoys close relations with the army (F-FDTL), the police service has been expanded to include several special units.
They include a 250-strong border police force, a 200-strong counter-insurgency police reserve force and 180 riot police, in addition to a special bodyguard unit.
The Australian has learnt that in 2002, the PNTL obtained an undisclosed number of sophisticated and expensive MP5 A3 sub-machineguns.
This was followed by an additional order in May last year for seven state-of-the-art F2000 machineguns for close-protection officers and 66 FNC assault rifles for riot police, the latter bought from Belgium.
In the same month, Mr Lobato ordered 180 Heckler and Koch 33 assault rifles for an elite police counter-insurgency force, supplied free of charge by the Malaysian Government.
And finally, in September last year another order was made for 200 Steyr assault rifles in a deal with Austria worth more than $200,000. In addition, Mr Lobato said the US had supplied an unspecified number of tactical shotguns to the police.
The PNTL has acquired more than 450 modern assault weapons for its paramilitary forces. "In the absence of (militia) border incursions, will the UPR (counter-insurgency police) have an internal security or policing role armed with military weapons?" asked one Western security analyst.
Based in Dili, the analyst said there had been no debate in parliament about the role of special police units and little public scrutiny so far.
Meanwhile, a special presidential report into East Timor's 3000-strong army has warned of rising tensions between police and soldiers aggravated by much better pay and conditions enjoyed by the police.
Dated August 2004, the report signed by President Gusmao warns: "Relations between the F-FDTL, the police and civil population are marked by feelings of marginalisation and abandonment experienced by military personnel.
Members of the police notoriously enjoy the best conditions in terms of equipment, uniform and salary. "At the top of the hierarchy there is a ministry (Mr Lobato's Interior Ministry) that formulates, co-ordinates and implements the internal security policy."
Australia has a major assistance program with the F-FDTL focusing on English language training, NCO training and radio communications.