austraLasia 1565

Timor's explosive situation - Salesian group prevents bloodshed
(note: Sorry for the 'heart of darkness' experience! I had not fallen off the planet but Africa (Kenya) did not permit the kind of broadcast bandwidth needed for austraLasia these days. 'Kurz', aka jbf)

COMORO: 28th May 2006 --  As conditions in Dili and beyond continue to be troubling, two groups of youth and men approached each other in an ugly and hostile confrontation near the Don Bosco compound in Dili.  Salesians Fr. Agostinho Soares, Fr. Joao Roque, Bro. Adriano de Jesus, Sister Ana Freitas and Sister Maria Fe Silva arrived on the scene to calm them down.
    The groups were armed with an assortment of weapons: machetes, traditional swords, pieces of iron pipe, spears, crow bars, "pana ambon" (a sharpened 12 cm nail with rafia tail propelled by a sling shot), lengths of iron chain and rocks. It took hours of talk, with both sides initially intent on doing what they planned to do. And even after the talking, the Salesians and the village leaders still had to stay with them for a long time, as the groups did not want to disperse and go home. But in the end, the groups did disperse to their own areas.
    In January this year, a group of about 600 soldiers complained about discrimination in the national defence force. They claimed that the easterners were favored over the westerners in treatment, and specially in promotion. All the higher officers from the rank of lieutenant colonel up were easterners. This resulted in a division of the country between east and west, and youth groups in the capital city started putting barricades in the streets, stopping cars and pedestrians and asking them whether they were easterners or westerners. Fights between youths from the east and west broke out. Even the police began to take sides between east and west. In the end many of the complainants, some police officers and others ran to the hills and began what some term now as a 5-days old civil war.
    Two days ago a peace-keeping force from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia began arriving in the capital, and were soon deployed. While the entire city is not yet under their control, the airport and road leading to the city has been secured. News reports today indicate a lessening in the violence that has resulted in the deaths of more than 20 people over the last few days and the further torching of homes and businesses.
    
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