Of coup plots and shadowy foreigners

The New Zealand Herald

June 22, 2006 Thursday

John Martinkus:

The East Timorese Prime Minister has added to the murk surrounding
the country's descent into violence by accusing opposition groups
backed by foreigners of conspiring to overthrow his Government in an
armed coup.

And his claims have been backed by senior sources within the Defence
Force, who say there have been three coup plots in the past 18 months.

Mari Alkatiri, himself accused of arranging a hit squad to eliminate
his critics, has for the first time given his version of what led to
the Dili chaos in late May.

The breakdown of law and order led to 130,000 internal refugees and
the deployment of 2200 troops from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

He accused opposition groups and their foreign supporters of
repeatedly trying to convince prominent commanders in the East
Timorese armed forces to overthrow his Government.

"They were always trying to get the command of [former guerrilla
fighters] Falintil, F-FDTL [defence forces]. They tried to convince
the command to order and participate in a coup. They failed."

He claimed his opponents then tried to weaken the influence of the military.

"They tried to break Falintil and they did it by bringing out of the
barracks almost 600."

He says his political opponents exploited ethnic divisions within the
police force (PNTL) to create unrest.

"They succeeded in dividing the people within the PNTL. This is the
whole strategy. Then they put groups of [police] against groups of
[soldiers] in confrontation. And they succeeded again. This is why I
requested assistance from outside," he said.

Senior sources within the armed forces command confirmed that not one
but three separate approaches had been made to its leadership to lead
a coup against Alkatiri in the past 18 months.

I was able to confirm that following the weeks of mass demonstrations
against Alkatiri's Government in April 2005 the Defence Force
commander, Brigadier Taur Matan Ruak, was approached to lead a coup.

He rejected the offer. Again early this year he was approached and
requested to lead a coup in a meeting with two prominent East
Timorese leaders and two foreign nationals. Again he refused,
reportedly telling them it was against the constitution and would set
an unacceptable precedent.

One of his leading deputies, Lieutenant Colonel Falur Rate Laek, a
former regional commander from Falintil and a veteran of the war
against Indonesia, was also approached by the same two local leaders
and foreign nationals. He also refused and reported the incident to
his command.

Due to the sensitivity of the information and the implications for
the current situation, the nationalities of the foreigners were not revealed.

The armed forces believe that last month's lawlessness was an attempt
to divide and destroy them as retribution for the Army's command
refusing to take part in a coup.

The Prime Minister was adamant the violence was orchestrated as a
part of a programme to topple his Government.

"It has to be institutions, some organisations, inside assisted by
others outside," he said. "I think there are outside groups from
Australia maybe from Indonesia but not the Governments. I am not
accusing the Government of Indonesia or the Government of Australia.
But still I do believe there are outside groups. We need some time to
investigate this but the whole plan was very well done and very well executed."

It's not the first time Alkatiri has called the attempts to oust him
an attempted coup. He continued to deny the accusations of a hit
squad against him and his Government and dismissed them as part of a
misinformation campaign run by his opposition.

He said the campaign was being run by "conservative elements in
institutions" in East Timor and abroad.

Allegations against the Government of Alkatiri proved difficult to verify.

The claims that at least 60 people were killed by the Army following
demonstrations in late April and buried in a mass grave to the west
of the city could not be checked. The priest who had claimed to have
a list with 67 names on it denied he had a list.

Then there was the allegation about Vincente "Rai Los" da Concecao,
the leader of a group of armed resistance fighters, who says
Alkatiri's orders were carried out by former Interior Minister
Rogerio Lobato, a close ally of the PM.

Da Concecao's 30 fighters were said to be based in the mountains
above the town of Liquica and equipped with automatic rifles. He
claimed to have received the rifles from Alkatiri and Lobato, who is
now under house arrest.

Journalists who went to meet him were surprised to be directed to the
house of the Carrascalao family in the hills above Liquica.

They said he had told them he was issued the weapons to kill
opponents of Alkatiri's ruling Fretilin Party.

The Carrascalao family have a history of opposition to Fretilin going
back to a leadership role in the UDT party which fought a civil war
against Fretilin in 1975.

Alkatiri said that he knew three of the men involved in the "Rai Los"
group as they had attended a Fretilin conference in May and he had
briefly met them. He said he told them only to enforce security and
not to kill opponents as they claimed.

Sources in the armed forces said the Rai Los men had participated in
the attack on the Army base in Tacitolu. Soldiers said da Concecao
was a former Falintil fighter who had been sacked in 2004 for
embezzling pay cheques.

Before the allegations about supplying weapons to da Concecao were
made public Alkatiri said he dismissed them as more opposition misinformation.

"The best way to overthrow somebody from power is to demonise them.
That is exactly what they are trying to do and how to do it? [By]
passing to media information like this that this man has a secret
army with the objective to eliminate others ... instead of having
killed someone from the opposition what they have done is really just
to fight against the [Army].

"They fought against the [Army] on May 24 in Tacitolu. What kind of
secret Fretilin group is this that they are also fighting against the
[Army]. This is contradictory," said Alkatiri.

While frustrations within the Timorese armed forces ignited the
latest crisis, it was preceded by riots against Alkatiri's leadership
in December 2001 and a prolonged protest led by the church against
his Government in April 2005.

Last February a group of soldiers from the country's west - which
grew from 140 to 591 - signed a petition claiming discrimination
inside the 1300-strong Army. In March they were dismissed from the
armed forces.

However, as events began to unfold the dispute quickly became the
start of a series of calls for Alkatiri to resign. The Prime Minister
was in no doubt what had taken place. He kept referring to it as an
attempted coup.

The petitioners' demonstration turned violent on April 28 when he
ordered the Army to take control. Police officers ran away and in
some cases joined the violence. The petitioners marched back to the
west of Dili and were kept there by the Army. Three people were
killed in fighting and the violence began to spread.

Last week, recalling his arrival in Dili, the commander of the
Australian forces, Brigadier Mick Slater, said there were two types
of gang violence.

"There were definitely the opportunistic gutless thugs ... I think
they were probably the major source of violence in town. There were
definitely groups, let's call them gangs, that were definitely being
manipulated and co-ordinated by other people from outside that gang
environment. I feel very, very strongly that that was the case."

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta says Alkatiri's claims of a coup
are "nonsense". "If there was a coup attempt the Prime Minister
should elaborate. A coup attempt by who?"

That is a question that no one at the moment, from the military
leadership, to the Prime Minister, to the commander of the Australian
intervention force and the President himself, is willing to answer.

* Herald correspondent John Martinkus was in Dili last week.

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