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Two people have been killed in clashes between East Timor police
and sacked soldiers, the latest violence since the cash-strapped
government dismissed more than 500 soldiers earlier this
month.
It was unclear how many people were hurt, but a Reuters
photographer on the scene said a hospital official had told him of
30 injuries.
"Two citizens were killed," police chief Paulo de Fatima Martins
told Reuters by telephone. It was not immediately clear if the dead
were former soldiers.
But the witness said East Timor police had fired into a crowd of
hundreds of ex-soldiers and their supporters who were burning cars
and throwing rocks.
"Police made an appeal, but they didn't listen ... They beat the
police," Martins said.
The protesters dispersed after the shooting and police clamped down
on security on the main roads of Dili, the seaside capital of the
tiny country of about 1 million people, with the situation
appearing under control by late afternoon.
Police were visiting residential areas of Dili, calling on people
to remain calm.
Friday's protest had been planned as the last in a series by the
sacked soldiers.
A one-time Portuguese colony, East Timor, north of Australia and
2,100 km east of Jakarta, was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and
formally annexed the following year.
Its people voted overwhelmingly for independence in a 1999
referendum marked by bloodshed in which an estimated 1,000 people
were killed.
Most of the violence was blamed on pro-Jakarta militia backed by
elements of the Indonesian military.
After an interim period of UN administration, East Timor became
independent in 2002.
One of the world's poorest countries, it has considerable energy
resources but is only now starting to develop them.
