Unrest feared on religious days in Timor

The Age
November 1, 2006 - 5:49PM

The UN has warned of the potential for more violence as East Timor marks two major religious holidays that remember the dead.

Locals said they feared visiting cemeteries for the traditional All Saints holiday, and Day of the Dead, or All Souls day on Thursday, which could spark fresh violence between rival gangs in the capital Dili.

It is estimated about 90 per cent of East Timorese are Catholic, with most traditionally visiting cemeteries on the two holy days to clean up their relatives' graves and pray.

UN Police Commissioner Antero Lopes said it was a potentially volatile time because many of the dead had been killed in the violence that has plagued East Timor.

"If people especially at the end of the day ... are intoxicated and they remember their relatives, and some of them died as a result of acts of violence, we hope that it will not be transported into revenge activities outside of the cemeteries," he told AAP.

Authorities were working with village chiefs and local families as part of a security plan implemented for the holidays.

"That will hopefully help deter the situation but ...there is potential for some violence," he said.

He described the security situation as "volatile".

In the current climate, a minor conflict between two people could easily flare into a large fight among youths, many affected by drugs and alcohol.

Clashes between rival gangs have killed up to eight people and injured about 50 in Dili in the past two weeks.

Head of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said some of the recent unrest was politically motivated.

"In the last few days, the last week, there was some violence and some of it was in my view politically motivated," he told a Senate estimates committee in Canberra.

"Some of the violence has been politically motivated. At other times we have seen tensions within the society boil over into the streets. Sometimes we see criminal activity. There is element of all of that in some of the violence we have seen in recent times."

Hundreds of Timorese attended church services across the capital on Wednesday.

Head of the Immaculada Concecao Catholic Church in Balide, Father Demetrio Barros Soares, was aware violence could "spark again".

"But we cannot be afraid. It is our obligation to pray on that day and we must do it, despite anything," he said.

Judite Dos Santos, 33, visited the graves of her two children at Santa Cruz cemetery - where more than 270 people were killed by Indonesian military 15 years ago - on Tuesday rather than attend on Wednesday.

"I already burn candles, so ... I don't have to come again," she said.

"Because I'm afraid if the condition go worse. If things gone wrong, we don't know where to run."

Others, like Bambina Rodriguez, 25, said they were aware of the "issues" but visited anyway.

"It is the big day for the dead ones, and we have to come," Rodriguez said.

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