Ex-official wants PM to resign

Ex-official wants PM to resign
One person dies in E. Timor fighting.

Published Thursday, June 1, 2006

DILI, East Timor (AP) - A fired army commander whose rebellion triggered the recent violence in East Timor demanded today that the prime minister resign and be tried for allegedly ordering troops to shoot civilians, saying this was the only way to end the fighting.

Officials said the unrest is taking an economic toll on East Timor’s resurgent coffee industry, a major source of foreign exchange that a quarter of the population depends on for their livelihood. Most of the high-quality organic beans from East Timor go to the United States, including the Seattle-based coffee chain Starbucks.

At least one person was reported killed in fighting in the capital of Dili, despite the presence of more than 2,000 foreign peacekeepers. Rioters set fire to shops and cars in one neighborhood, and several dozen Australian troops rushed to the scene.

Fighting between rival factions in the armed forces has given way in the past week to gang warfare, arson and looting, forcing tens of thousands of people to abandon the city or take refuge in camps scattered across the seaside capital.

The fighting was triggered by the dismissal in March of 600 soldiers from the 1,400-member army. Maj. Alfredo Reinado, the fired army commander, blamed Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri for the unrest.

The government fired the soldiers after they went on strike to protest alleged discrimination because they were from East Timor’s western regions, seen as sympathetic to the country’s former occupier, Indonesia.

Reinado accused the prime minister of ordering troops in April, when the rioting first erupted, to open fire on what he claims were civilian demonstrators supporting the rebels. Five people were killed. After the incident, there was a tense lull of several weeks before the rebels launched sporadic attacks against government troops.