Jakarta – Forty-seven people have been arrested in East Timor in an operation against gang violence in the tiny territory, the United Nations said in a statement on Thursday.

The arrests were related to rioting and other crimes including homicide, it said. UN police seized weapons such as batons, darts, spears, machetes and home-made fire-arms and explosives during the raids.

A two-week investigation had targeted the Bari Piti and Hudi Laran areas of the capital Dili, both strongholds of gangs linked to martial arts groups, the UN said. Australia led a force of 3,200 foreign peacekeepers to East Timor in late May after the country descended into chaos following the sacking of 600 mutinous soldiers.

Sporadic gang-related violence has continued in East Timor, the Asia-Pacific region's youngest country, plagued by poverty and high youth unemployment since independence in 2002.

The territory of around a million people voted in a 1999 referendum for independence from Indonesia, which annexed it after Portugal ended its colonial rule in 1975. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration.