East Timor PM insists he won't go, as violence continues

DILI - East Timor's embattled Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri yesterday defended his crumbling position, as violence continued to rack Dili and political momentum mounted for his resignation.

While Foreign Minister - and now also Defence Minister - Dr Jose Ramos-Horta openly canvassed Mr Alkatiri's resignation, the Prime Minister told the Weekend Herald he had no intention of stepping down and that his relationship with President Xanana Gusmao was good.

The departure of Mr Alkatiri is seen by many in East Timor as the key to restoring stability, although a real risk remains that hard-line supporters in the ruling Fretilin Party could spark a renewed cycle of violence.

It has become clear that at least some of the mob violence has been politically fomented.

But it is also clear that if Mr Alkatiri falls from power he and his family will become targets for the payback attacks that have seen people killed, beaten and cut with machetes, and their houses torched.

His home near the New Zealand Embassy was an early target of gangs, but with much tighter security he has been working from there rather than his office since the disintegration of law and order two weeks ago.

While the Army, police and rebel soldiers sacked after a dispute over alleged discrimination have ceased open warfare and confined themselves to barracks, mobs still rampage through the streets of Dili.

Mr Alkatiri has maintained his rejection of Mr Gusmao's emergency order assuming powers of defence and internal security, insisting to the Weekend Herald that he remained in control of the Government and its security organs.

As he has before, he blamed reports of the presidential assumption of power on an incorrect English translation of the word "principal", which he said had been translated as "sole" rather than its true Portuguese meaning of "main".

"This means that we [Gusmao and Alkatiri] need to cooperate closely," he said.

"We did it to create a mechanism for cooperation between us ... Whether the Prime Minister should resign or not is a decision he has to make or the President has to make."