Gang clashes in East Timor leave 1 dead

Star-Telegram.com
Sun, Dec. 03, 2006
Associated Press

DILI, East Timor - A man was hacked to death and 17 others were injured in overnight gang fighting in East Timor's capital, a hospital official said Monday.

Two men were in critical condition at the national hospital after being attacked by rival gang members with machetes and knives, said paramedic Nelson da Silva Carmo.

Maria Goncalves said her 27-year-old brother, Eugino, had been mutilated by the men who fatally attacked him.

"I do not accept my brother being slaughtered like an animal," Goncalves told The Associated Press. "I urge the police to arrest those responsible."

East Timor, which violently broke from occupier Indonesia in 1999, was plunged into crisis in April and May when then-Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri dismissed a third of the armed forces.
The move sparked gun battles between police and army factions that later spilled into gang warfare, looting and arson, toppling the government in June.

Calm largely returned with the arrival of more than 2,500 foreign peacekeepers and the installation of a new government, but there have been isolated cases of street violence in recent months.

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