Timor violence by drug-fuelled youths 'organised': UN

SMHT.com
October 27, 2006 - 7:14PM

The latest wave of deadly gang warfare in East Timor appears to be "organised" the United Nations said on Friday as more bodies were discovered.

There are also reports that youths have been fuelled by drugs and alcohol in what the UN said could be further evidence that the violence is orchestrated.

UN police said at least two more people were killed overnight or on Friday morning. They are also investigating reports of a further two deaths.

Fighting broke out among large groups of youths in the beachfront Dili markets area, near the US embassy, on Thursday night and again on Friday morning.

"We have confirmed two dead bodies found, two more are looking likely," UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

"We've had reports that have been credible of bodies being found ... but we are still confirming those."

A 29-year-old man died of apparent gunshot wounds, while a 25-year-old had knife wounds, an Australian Army spokesman said.

It comes just days after two Timorese were killed fighting at a refugee camp near Dili's Nicolau Lobato International Airport, which also forced the temporary closure of the facility.

The UN said the situation was currently calm, but security forces are on alert for further unrest.

"These incidents of fighting over the last few days, they have involved quite large numbers, ... two, three hundred people in the fighting," Edwards said.

"When you get that number of people involved it suggests that these are organised in some manner.

"We are trying to establish what is behind this, if it is being organised, who is doing the organising, at this stage we don't have anything with certainty on that."

But Army spokesman Keith Wilkinson described the latest deaths as "isolated", and said they were not linked to the recent violence near the airport.

"These aren't linked at all," he said.

The UN said the violence had been contained to a pocket of the city and the rest of Dili, and East Timor, appeared calm.

There are almost 1000 Australian troops in East Timor providing support to the UN mission, and around 900 UN police officers.

It's expected to be closer to its full-strength of 1600 UN police officers in about a month's time.

"Obviously you'd like there not to be incidents like this happening but I think it has to be understood in its context," Edwards said.

"With 900 (officers) you can't be in all places all the time, so how you operate - you go out patrolling and when something happens you respond to it.

"That has happened and each time it has happened the situation has been brought under control.

"We are not at full strength yet, ... for the moment the situation is being dealt with, it is being contained."

The violence comes just a week after the release of a UN report released into the crisis in the nation in April and May when rival security forces clashed after the government sacked a third of its armed forces.

The special UN commission named senior government and security force personnel it believed should be further investigated or prosecuted over the crisis, in which dozens of people were killed and 150,000 forced from their homes.

AAP