East Timor: Frightened Timorese packed churches to pray for peace yesterday, but gangs allied to feuding police or army units continued to rampage through the capital, evading foreign peacekeeping troops and torching homes and vehicles.
This correspondent saw one gang of about 20 youths chase a man into a half-built house before bludgeoning him to death in the doorway with rocks and clubs.
"He was setting fires," said one of the ringleaders, seemingly the oldest at around 20.
As night fell, smoke was still billowing above several neighbourhoods in Dili as the gangs, which identify with army factions from either the east or west of this tiny nation, marked out their territories with makeshift barricades and roadblocks and took revenge on rivals.
Antonio Caleres junior, director of the city's main hospital, said 20 people had died there in the last week - 14 from gunshot wounds and six from burn injuries.
Australian troops, part of a 2,000-plus multinational deployment following the East Timor government's appeal for help, stepped up patrols in the capital but still appeared to hold back from directly engaging the rampaging gangs.
They were backed by small patrols of Malaysian and New Zealand troops. "Why aren't the Australians doing anything?" asked one youth, manning a barricade on the main road leading from the airport.
"It's a trickier operation than some people think," Australian prime minister John Howard said yesterday. "Nobody should assume that it's just a simple walk-in-the-park military operation - it's quite challenging." The commander of the Australian troops said soldiers were concentrating on disarming factions of the military and gangs.
"We will detain anyone who is suspected of having undertaken or participated in a fight," Brig Mick Slater said. "We will be disarming everybody in Dili."
Hundreds of Timorese looted a World Food Programme warehouse, taking huge bags of rice after disrupting an attempt to distribute supplies to women.
They were ordered to drop the bags by patrolling Australian soldiers, but when the troops were called to another disturbance the looters carried on where they left off.
Prime minister Mari Alkatiri, whose foot-dragging over a dispute by disgruntled soldiers is said by many Timorese and diplomats to have been the cause of the trouble, said on Saturday that it would take time for the Australians to restore order.
About 600 of the 1,400-strong Timorese army rebelled in April after they were dismissed for protesting over what they said was discrimination against soldiers from the west of the country. Most military leaders are said to come from the east.
Yesterday, thousands of Timorese prayed for peace in Dili's dozens of churches, with priests calling for calm.
"In Jesus's name, urge your brothers and cousins to stop the fighting," said Fr Antonio Gomez at Santo Carlo church in the city centre.
- (Reuters)