Gangs attack Aussie troops

Australian troops in Dili patrol the street near the airport to guard against angry Fretilin party supporters.
Dan Harrison
August 7, 2007 - 2:52PM

A vehicle carrying Australian soldiers has been attacked by gangs throwing rocks and sticks as it entered Dili International Airport.

Violence has also been reported in another refugee camp in the city, where more buildings have been set alight.

The Age correspondent Lindsay Murdoch witnessed the attack on the Australians soon after 10am (11am AEST).

Murdoch said the unmarked Landcruiser was carrying four soldiers including a woman, all in combat uniform when it was set upon by youths at the gate of the airport.

"All its wheels are flat, its windows are smashed and the soldiers screamed into the gate," he said.

Soldiers 'very frightened'

"There are four very frightened Australian soldiers aboard. They seemed very afraid, but they weren't injured."

Australia currently has more than 1000 troops and 50 police deployed to the country.

Also today, Australian troops and police and Portuguese police fired warning shots and tear gas in an effort to quell violence in a refugee camp directly opposite the airport, where Australian troops shot and wounded protesters last year.

The airport is surrounded by heavily armed police and troops as rioters set buildings on the airport road alight and pelt passing vehicles with stones.

Tear gas fired at protesters

Security forces in East Timor fired tear gas today to contain rowdy protesters at a refugee camp angry over independence hero Xanana Gusmao being named as prime minister.

About 100 youths from the predominantly pro-Fretilin camp near the international airport pelted stones at cars and a patrol of about 30 national and Malaysian police who were sent to contain them after they burned tyres on the streets.

The police fired tear gas cannisters towards the group but they continued to yell ''Fretilin! Fretilin!'' while some waved party flags and threw stones at the security personnel.

Hundreds of curious onlookers watched the standoff from a distance.

There were no immediate reports of other violence in Dili, which saw street barricades, stone-throwing and tyre burnings following yesterday's announcement by President Jose Ramos Horta that Gusmao would lead the next government.

A customs office was also burned in the capital.

Anger as Gusmao named PM

The decision angered some supporters of Gusmao's long-time arch rival, ex-prime minister Mari Alkatiri, who has claimed the new government is "illegal'' and "unconstitutional.''

Fretilin, the former ruling party, won just 21 seats in East Timor's 65-seat parliament, well short of the absolute majority required to govern.

Gusmao heads the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), the second largest vote winner. The party has since entered a coalition with smaller parties which together hold
37 seats.

June's elections, the first since East Timor won independence in
2002, were supposed to reinvigorate the nation's young democracy after more than a year of tensions and uncertainty.

Unrest rocked the streets of the seaside capital in April and May last year, when factional fighting among security forces left at least 37 people dead and forced international peacekeepers to be dispatched to restore calm.
Alkatiri was forced to step down in the wake of the violence.

Thousands of UN police and Australian-led peacekeepers remain on patrol and an estimated 100,000 people — about 10 per cent of the population — still seek shelter in refugee camps.

Gusmao is due to be sworn in as prime minister tomorrow.

with AAP