Also - Lusa: Sacked soldiers boycott official inquiry, demand army be disarmed; Some rebel army officers want dialogue with president, says FM;  East Timor: Many Dili schools remain closed for lack of students, teachers; Humanitarian needs of displaced people under control, says gov't


East Timor: Sacked troops' call for disarming of military "unacceptable" - FM

Maliana, East Timor, May 16 (Lusa) - Demands by a group of recently sacked troops in East Timor that the country's defense force should be disarmed are unacceptable to the Dil government, Foreign Minister Jos?Ramos Horta said Tuesday.

"Obviously, this would be totally unacceptable for the government, and the President of the Republic, Xanana Gusm?, would not approve such demands", said Ramos Horta in the town of Maliana near the border with Indonesian West Timor.

The call for Timor's military to give up their arms was one of a fresh set of demands made the same day by the dismissed soldiers, who are also refusing to cooperate with a senior commission tasked with investigating allegations of regional discrimination in the army.

Earlier Tuesday, the head of the inquiry commission, Father Antonio Gon?lves, told Lusa the official body was facing an "impasse" with the troops declining to cooperate with the investigation and making fresh demands.

The Catholic priest said the former soldiers boycotted a first inquiry session outside Dili Monday and that a second meeting with another group set for Tuesday was also not taking place.

"The petitioners", as the nearly 600 dismissed soldiers are known, "now demand to be heard all together and the situation is deadlocked, Father Gon?lves said.

He said representatives of the former soldiers in Maliana and Liqui?, southwest of the capital, informed the commission Monday that they were awaiting "orders" from their leader, ex-Lt. Gast? Salsinha, to meet with the commission.

Protests by the former soldiers, representing about 40% of the army, over allegations of regional discrimination in the 1,500-strong military led to their dismissal in March and bloody rioting and clashes with security forces in Dili in late April.

Salsinha, contacted by phone in a mountain hideout, told Lusa Tuesday that he and his men would not collaborate with the 10-member Commission of Notables.

He demanded the creation of an "international commission", involving the United Nations, to disarm the army and to investigate both the allegations of military discrimination and the deadly crackdown by police and troops against demonstrators in Dili in April that left five dead and about 80 injured.

Salsinha, insisting his men were unarmed except for knives, said army weapons should be placed in the care of President Gusm?, in whom the dissidents have "total confidence", until the crisis was resolved.

He said he wanted to concentrate his supporters, preferably near Ermera, southeast of Dili, to "avoid disturbances" because "what is dangerous is to have the people scattered".

About 200 of the original "petitioners" were with him in the mountains near Atsabe, Salsinha added, saying that some 300 were missing.

EL/RBV/SAS/CJB.

Lusa



East Timor: Sacked soldiers boycott official inquiry, demand army be disarmed

Dili, May 16 (Lusa) - The senior commission established to investigate complaints of regional discrimination in East Timor's army said Tuesday that it faced an "impasse", with recently sacked troops making new demands and declining cooperation in the inquiry.

The commission spokesman, Catholic priest Ant?io Gon?lves, told Lusa a group of former soldiers boycotted a first inquiry session outside Dili Monday and that a second meeting with another group set for Tuesday was also not taking place.

"The petitioners", as the nearly 600 dismissed soldiers are known, "now demand to be heard all together and the situation is in an impasse", Father Gon?lves said.

He said representatives of the former soldiers in Maliana and Liqui?, southwest of the capital, informed the commission Monday that they were awaiting "orders" from their leader, ex-Lt. Gast? Salsinha, to meet with the 10-member commission.

Protests by the former soldiers, representing about 40% of the army, over allegations of regional discrimination in the 1,500-strong military led to their dismissal in March and bloody rioting and clashes with security forces in Dili in late April.

Salsinha, contacted by phone in a mountain hideout, told Lusa Tuesday that he and his men would not collaborate with the 10-member Commission of Notables.

He demanded the creation of an "international commission", involving the United Nations, to disarm the army and to investigate both the allegations of military discrimination and the deadly crackdown by police and troops against demonstrators in Dili in April that left five dead and about 80 injured.

Salsinha, insisting his men were unarmed except for knives, said army weapons should be placed in the care of President Xanana Gusm?, in whom the dissidents have "total confidence", until the crisis was resolved.

He said he wanted to concentrate his supporters, preferably near Ermera, southeast of Dili, to "avoid disturbances" because "what is dangerous is to have the people scattered".

About 200 of the original "petitioners" were with him in the mountains near Atsabe, Salsinha added, saying that some 300 were missing.

EL/RBV/SAS.


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East Timor: Some rebel army officers want dialogue with president, says FM

Suai, East Timor, May 15 (Lusa) - A group of rebel troops in East Timor who went AWOL in protest at alleged heavy-handed intervention security officers to end a demonstration by sacked soldiers late last month want to hold talks with President Xanana Gusm?, Dili's foreign minister said Monday.

Jos?Ramos Horta, speaking after meeting two officers in the East Timor Defense Force (FDTL) in the western town of Suaia, said he had urged the pair - Maj Alves and Maj Marcos Tilman - to begin dialogue with the military and civil authorities.

The two majors went AWOL on May 3, said Ramos Horta, in protest at the action by security forces April 28 to end a demonstration by disgruntled troops and their supporters in the capital in which five people died.

Both FDTL officers said they were willing to hold talks with President Gusm? and Timor's military chief, Brig Gen Taur Matan Ruak, in an effort to seek a solution to their dispute, added Ramos Horta.

This would involve a full investigation of the mob riots in Dili late April to uncover who gave orders for troops and police to break up the protests with fatal consequences, the two dissident officers told Ramos Horta.

Dili's top diplomat, who had flown earlier Monday to western Timor for a three-day tour of regions on the Indonesian border, told Lusa that the two FDTL officers had pledged their continuing loyalty to the fledgling state defense force.

Ahead of his trip, Ramos Horta had said his visit aimed to show "the presence of the Timorese State", reassure local citizens and hold talks with Indonesian officials.

A top-level Commission of Notables set up to investigate alleged regional discrimination in the FDTL, the controversy that sparked last month's fatal Dili riots, also said Monday that it would travel to western districts of Timor to meet with groups of recently sacked troops.

Nearly all of the 600-odd troops sacked March by the government are from west Timor.

MA/CJB.

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East Timor: Many Dili schools remain closed for lack of students, teachers

Dili, May 16 (Lusa) - Nearly half the schools in the East Timorese capital remained closed Tuesday due to the absence of students or teachers, more than two weeks after violent rioting left Dili a ghost town.

Despite the city's gradual return to normality since late last week, a senior Education Ministry official told Lusa about 40% of the capital's 97 primary, middle and secondary schools remained closed.

Domingos Doutel Soares, Education Minister Armindo Maia's chief of staff, said most of the closures were due to the absence of many of the Dili's 50,000 students and to a lesser extent to the absence of teachers.

Maia has twice issued appeals since the deadly April 28-29 riots for families to return home and send children back to school ahead of nationwide exams set for June 19.

The government set May 8 as the deadline for civil servants, including teachers, to return to their work places.

There have been no reports of disturbances to regular school activities outside the capital.

In another development, national police and local officials in Bobonaro district denied Tuesday, in comments to Lusa, that any unrest occurred in that area southwest of Dili late last week.

President Xanana Gusm? said Saturday he had received word that demonstrators had tried to close down government offices in Bobonaro.

A similar demonstration earlier in the week in the town of Gleno left one policeman dead and two injured.

EL/RBV/SAS.

Lusa

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East Timor: Humanitarian needs of displaced people under control, says gov't

Dili, May 15 (Lusa) - The East Timor government has responded adequately to the humanitarian needs of tens thousands of residents of the capital who fled the city in the wake of deadly mob riots a fortnight ago, a Dili minister said Monday.

In comments to Lusa, Labor Minister Ars?io Bano said: "We have the situation controlled. We have already distributed 147 metric tons of rice, about 9,000 sacks, nationwide to where there are people in need".

Bano had been asked by Lusa to comment on criticism from a leader of Timor's influential Catholic Church, Bishop Bas?io do Nascimento of Baucau, that the government had been slow to respond to the needs of an estimated 35,000 people who have yet to return home.

In his attack on an insufficient and sluggish response to the humanitarian fallout from the fatal disturbances in Dili two weeks ago, the prelate charged that the government's action only touched "the tip of the iceberg" and that Dili's leaders had ignored the pressing needs of the Timorese people.

Declining to comment directly on the bishop's allegations, Bano said the Dili government "has its sleeves rolled up?nd will not leave the people abandoned".

The Timorese authorities have already given assistance to over 30,000 people, or about 9,000 families, in the last two weeks, said the minister, who also is also responsible for community reintegration.

Bano said his ministry and the Dili cabinet was coordinating all aid efforts in Timor, after the recent slide into instability sparked by protesting sacked troops and their supporters, as it was trusted by both UN agencies and NGOs in the new nation.

Distribution of children's milk, water, rice, medicines and the provision of sanitary facilities for all displaced people in Timor is being coordinated by the Dili government, said Bano, adding that the Timorese authorities would always "be prepared to do even more".

RBV/CJB.

Lusa

 

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