23 people killed amid ongoing East Timor violence
Foreign troops today struggled to stave off civil war in East Timor after soldiers gunned down unarmed police in the capital and a mob torched a house filled with children, as the death toll in four days of violence climbed to 23.
Members of the tiny country’s 800-member army attacked the national police headquarters yesterday, accusing police of allying themselves with a large band of dismissed soldiers who have engaged in street battles with the military in Dili.
After an hour, UN police and military advisers negotiated a cease-fire under which the police were to surrender their weapons and leave the building.
However, as the unarmed police were being escorted out, “army soldiers opened fire on them,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.
The number of police killed in the attack climbed to 10 today, after one died of his injuries overnight, said Antonio Caleres, a hospital director. A civilian and a soldier also were killed in fresh violence today.
Residents also described how, in one of the most grisly attacks, a mob went to their neighbourhood yesterday, smashing windows and pouring petrol on houses, one of which belonged to Home Security Minister Rogerio Lobato, though he was not inside at the time.
An Associated Press Television News cameraman saw six charred bodies - including two young children and three teenagers – scattered across the rooms of the house today.
