Calm 'short-lived' in East Timor

An Australian peacekeeper passes houses set ablaze by a Timorese mob. Picture / Reuters

There were reports today that the situation in East Timor deteriorated again last night.

Several buildings were torched by rampaging mobs, undermining the relative calm that appeared to have taken hold yesterday.

However, head of the Australian-led force in the country Brigadier Mick Slater said people were out on the streets and there was food in the shops. The peackeepers said there were only three arsons overnight.

Brigadier Slater said today: "There is no humanitarian crisis here. There is the potential for one if we do not sort out the security situation and that is my job."

The President of stricken East Timor had last night moved to assume full control of the tiny nation and give new hope to an end to the violence.

The move was announced after a heavily guarded all-day meeting of the Council of State, attended by most of the country's senior political figures.

The meeting paves the constitutional route for President Xanana Gusmao to take power in East Timor.

The news came after New Zealand troops yesterday helped disarm East Timorese police.

Working with Australians and Malaysians, soldiers from the Burnham-base second/first battalion are also blocking armed Timorese soldiers from moving through Dili, ensuring they remain in self-imposed confinement to barracks.

In the hills outside the capital, one large group of rebel soldiers have also started handing over their firearms.

Throughout Dili, soldiers of the Australian-led coalition have been cracking down on gangs, seizing more than 260 rifles, shotguns, handguns and grenades by 11am yesterday.

"We're starting to see some good signs," Slater said yesterday.

"If you look around we don't have all the fires of the previous days.

"There's been no firing, no gunfights, on the outskirts of town since late yesterday afternoon and people are out on the streets more than they have been."

But the city remains tense, with tens of thousands of people packed into makeshift refugee camps with scarce food and water, little sanitation and major health risks.

And last night looting was still rife, with gangs stripping bare the Dili regional police headquarters in Caicoli and the nearby military police compound.

Traders yesterday returned in small numbers to the big Taibasi market, deserted since waves of violence raced through the surrounding districts last month.

In the Belcusi district, another house was burned after a gunfight on Sunday morning and thugs still roam the back streets.

But the voluntary surrender of weapons by the police is a significant breakthrough.

Brigadier Slater said the operation to disarm the police and secure them in a safe haven in Dili had been the result of the influence on all parties of President Gusmao.

In an operation beginning shortly before midday yesterday, police emerged from hiding in the hills and surrendered their guns to New Zealand, Australian and Malaysian soldiers at prearranged sites.

The senior New Zealand national officer in East Timor, Wing Commander Craig Basher, said 31 New Zealand soldiers were working with the Australians.

"They are involved in perimeter security in the west of Dili and they also have a role in the disarming of the PNTL [police]," he said.

More New Zealand soldiers are expected to be patrolling in East Timor tomorrow. Prime Minister Helen Clark said a company of 124 was due in Dili.

The Defence Force said this morning the troops were leaving North Queensland today, but their exact arrival time in Dili was not yet known.

Helen Clark expected New Zealand soldiers would remain in East Timor this year and into next. "The advice we have from Timor today is that there is now no effective Timorese police force whatsoever ... and it's very dependent on the build-up of the international force to deal with those basic law and order issues," Helen Clark said.

Wing Commander Basher said the situation faced by New Zealand soldiers remained dangerous.

"Without a doubt," he said. "There are flashpoints all over the city. It is potentially dangerous everywhere. We're doing our bit here and we are pulling our weight as a small nation."

- Additional reporting by Mike Houlahan, NZPA and NEWSTALK ZB