Lost in Translation?! Hilariante... se não fossem tão vigaristas

ABC
Gusmao supporters demonstrate in Dili

PM - Tuesday, 6 June , 2006 18:21:28
Reporter: Peter Cave

MARK COLVIN: In East Timor, hundreds of protesters have driven from the country's western mountains to the capital Dili to declare their support for President Xanana Gusmao.

Late this afternoon they were given permission to demonstrate in the city's centre. Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Cave was there and I asked him to describe the scene while the protest was going on, a short while ago.

PETER CAVE: Well basically it's a parade, Mark, there are about 30 or 40 trucks, buses, dozens of motorbikes, being escorted by Malaysian and Australian APCs (armoured personnel carriers) through town. It's taken us about three quarters of an hour to get from the airport up through town. We just passed the Government offices, we've just passed Parliament, and just about the whole way there have been crowds lining the streets cheering the demonstrators on, yelling out "down with Alkatiri, viva Xanana Gusmao".

We've just turned around the Parliament building. We're heading back out through town at the moment. The only time there's looked like being any trouble is when we went through the notorious Comoro district, a few rocks were thrown, a bit of yelling, but that was about it.

MARK COLVIN: Yes, Peter, it was suggested in some quarters this was going to be a major headache for the Australian security forces, but it hasn't turned out that way?

PETER CAVE: No, basically just as I said. Just about everyone, almost 100 per cent of people, have been in support of this parade. They've been out cheering them on, they've been yelling out, as the people in the demonstration have, "down with the Prime Minister".

MARK COLVIN: And …

PETER CAVE: It's a very impressive show of people power, Mark.

MARK COLVIN: They're certainly making a fair bit of noise. While this hasn't actually been encouraged by Xanana Gusmao, it will be seen as very, very politically provocative, won't it?

PETER CAVE: Well, it's interesting, if you consider what was said by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri last week. He dismissively said that Ramos-Horta could only turn a few hundred demonstrators out. He could turn 10,000 or even 100,000 people out onto the street. So far Mr Alkatiri has turned not one single demonstrator out onto the street in his favour, and what's going on at the moment, as I said, is a very impressive show of people power in favour of Xanana Gusmao and against Dr Alkatiri.

MARK COLVIN: And tell me, is the fact that the rocks were thrown, the few rocks that were thrown, were in that very troublesome suburb of Comoro, is that an indication that that suburb is very pro-Alkatiri, or just that they like throwing rocks, I suppose?

PETER CAVE: No, it's been probably the centre of most of the troubles for the past two weeks. There is a village populated largely by people from the east, which is right alongside a village populated largely by people from the west.There've been beatings, there've been house burnings, there've been rock throwings, it's a very troubled area, and I think basically just a small group of easterners came out and tried it on. I mean, several hundred people jumped off the trucks and chased them before the troops, and there are a large number of troops out on the streets, not only in armoured personnel carriers as part of this parade, but lining the streets. But before the troops intervened, that small group of easterners, probably about 20 of them, had run away back into the area where they belong.

MARK COLVIN: So where to from here? Will this parade just end up dispersing and going home, or is there something bigger planned?

PETER CAVE: The agreement, before they came in they negotiated for almost an hour before they came in, was that they would parade through town, supported by the APCs, and then they would leave again. At the moment we've done a loop of town and it appears that we are heading out of town again.

MARK COLVIN: Peter Cave, speaking to me a short time ago, and it appears that that demonstration has now largely dispersed.