Fresh violence in East Timor as rivals square off

DILI - Fears of renewed violence in East Timor rose today after several houses and small shops in the capital were torched by protesters allied to or against ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

Alkatiri quit on Monday following weeks of public protest and while President Xanana Gusmao mulls the ruling Fretilin party's suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party supporters gathered outside the capital, preparing to march on Dili.

Hopes for an end to more than two months of violence fizzled out as news of the gathering by Fretilin party supporters spread. They were expected in the capital today.

But hundreds of anti-Alkatiri protesters were still camped outside the main government building and scores scattered in groups in parks and open areas around the sleepy seaside capital.

A 2500 strong Australia-led intervention force had increased patrols and Australian army firemen were battling fires in two houses and several shops in a neighbourhood near the airport today.

"I am very worried," said one businessman as he put shutters up on his kiosk. "I have taken my valuable stuff away."

The Fretilin supporters were coming from the east of the country, Alkatiri's heartland.

Scores of homes and businesses belonging to eastern Timorese have been torched in the capital over the past two months, and although both ethnically and linguistically identical, there are fears Asia's newest nation could split along east-west lines.

That division was responsible for clashes in the armed forces two months ago that spiralled into looting and arson and only ended with the arrival of the intervention force.

Western Timorese are seen as having had Indonesian sympathies during the country's often brutal colonial occupation. Eastern Timorese claim credit for fighting an insurgency that ended rule by Jakarta.

Fretilin holds 55 of parliament's 88 seats and, according to the constitution, has the right to nominate the next prime minister.

Australian troops were seen reinforcing checkpoints and blockades on the road the Fretilin convoy would travel. Officers have previously said they would allow demonstrations by all parties as long as they remained peaceful.

Diplomats believe Fretilin's choice for prime minister was likely to be either the current deputy premier, Ana Pessoa, Labour Minister Arsenio Bano or Health Minister Rui Maria de Arauzo.

A non-Fretilin unity candidate could be Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, although he has said he would only do the job as a last resort.

East Timor was a Portuguese colony for centuries before a revolution in Lisbon in 1975 gave the territory a brief taste of independence. Indonesian troops invaded a few days later and Jakarta annexed East Timor in 1976.

After a 1999 vote for independence marked by violence blamed largely on pro-Jakarta militia with ties to the Indonesian army, an international peacekeeping force moved into the territory, ushering in a transitional period of UN administration before East Timor became a fully-fledged nation in 2002.

- REUTERS