Two weeks ago may have been a bad one but as quickly as it came, it disappeared. There is no doubt that there was an orchestrated campaign to stir things up and turn people against the OZ military then it just seemed like the OZ military switched on the PR machine.

For the last 2 weeks, the ADF’s Major Stone has been appearing on Timor Television immediately after the evening news. He is an accomplished (and entirely self-taught) Tetun speaker and has a “boy next door” face. I think the people have responded to a bit of common-sense. It also explains why I have seen this military guy schmoozing in coffee shops and restaurants for several months. It makes sense – shoot the breeze and find out what’s happening out in the streets, where the rumour mill gets fed.

A Portuguese military officer follows Major Stone on TV with (presumably) similar “calming” words in Portuguese.

Having just said all that, it doesn’t mean absolutely everything is fine and dandy. For instance, on Thursday evening, there was a stoush at the IDP camp located between the Hotel Timor and the port. The story goes that some camp dwellers attacked workers at the port demanding jobs. The story also has it that the GNR (Portuguese military police) came in and slapped the port workers (perhaps picking on the wrong side) thus inciting the families of port workers to come in and get angry. Time will tell if there is any retribution for this one.

Mr. Alkatiri left for Portugal for medical treatment and the PM, Jose Ramos Horta delivered his “100 day speech” which you can find at :
http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2006/gov-tls-08nov.pdf (The Timor-Leste government web site has not been updated since January.)

I noticed the resumption of soccer games on the dirt pitch on the foreshore near the Palacio. I haven’t seen them for months. Rather than a specific sign of tension relief, I was told there is apparently some structured sporting activities that occur at this time of year arranged by some of the villages. So the soccer was linked to the tug-of-war and beach volleyball stuff setup on the foreshore across from the World Bank building.

You don’t tend to see many military on the streets anymore. I certainly do not miss the unmistakable clatter of the APCs. The choppers still regularly do laps of town. And yes, you do tend to see more UN police than ever around now. Its hard to see how you can get away with much now. And cycling without a helmet – I was told it will still be quite a few months before they consider pinging me. Yippee.

On choppers, you get used to the familiar sound then a new one appears. It took a few days to sink in that a different chopper was in the skies – a Kiowa. Smaller and obviously cheaper to run than a Blackhawk, it would seem more suitable to the predominantly observation role these days.

[For chopper-heads : Kiowa made by Bell, 2 crew, up to 6 passengers, 2000 lb load capacity. Blackhawk made by Sikorsky, 3 crew plus 2 gunners, 11 passengers, 9000 lb load capacity. Courtesy of quick internet search. Configurations may vary.]

For the last 2 weeks, the humidity has increased and we have the return of the fogged up sunglasses/cameras after leaving air-conditioned buildings. There have been heavy clouds in the afternoon on a few days, indicating the imminent arrival of the first of the wet season deluges. Some predict the first rain will be by 15 November while others think it will hang on for another month.

There is a heavier push to move IDPs (refugees) out of the camps before the wet season hits hard. And the mosquitos come back from holidays in force.

I have now read the Survey of Gangs report.  It is certainly helpful and at least, it lets me know I was not too far off the mark.  The report took about 3 weeks of research and is obviously limited by that.

The key points that I noticed/inferred are :

• the gangs have been around for quite a long time but had remained largely un-noticed (by the foreign community) until April this year

• there are many groups, most of which we might call youth groups – only some of these can be properly called “gangs” (if we associate violence or law breaking with the word gang)

• it seems to confirm that the east/west divide has been around for a lot longer than this year

• unemployment may well be the key reason for the huge membership numbers of these groups, but cultural and safety issues are not to be discounted

• more than 50% of Timorese men belong to one of these groups

• the study specifically identified 107 such groups but estimated the real number could be 3 times this figure

In the western world, we really have many groups that would come under a similar umbrella.  For example, sporting clubs, hobbiest clubs, singing, dancing, chess, even Rotary, but none of these tend to involve themselves in running amok.  We may only guess what might happen in our own cultures if unemployment blew out to 50%.  (The figure could even be a lot higher here than 50% as the percent of Timorese in classical wage and salary earner jobs is probably less than 20%.)
One thing you do notice here is the almost complete absence of sporting facilities, and I am nowhere near the first to say “send 10,000 soccer balls and give the kids something less destructive to do”.  Didn’t you know that western governments pump money into sport to allow the masses to expend energy on something other than kicking over rubbish bins (and governments) ?

I was waiting for an acquaintance to email this report to me but tumbleweed found it for me first.  You’ll have to go there, read about it and download it.  It is a 2.9Mbyte PDF and comes in at 44 pages but has lots of pictures so probably has around 25 pages of actual reading.
It is called :

A SURVEY OF GANGS AND YOUTH GROUPS IN DILI, TIMOR-LESTE
A REPORT COMMISSIONED BY AUSTRALIA’S AGENCY FOR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AusAID
Research: James Scambary
Research Assistants:
Hippolito Da Gama
Joao Barreto
Sept. 15, 2006
I will post the link after I have read it.  Two days holiday for “All Saints Day” coming up Wednesday and Thursday (1 and 2 November).

I wake this morning to a spray of articles from the OZ press. Apart from obviously concentrating on the anti-OZ sentiments expressed this week, the most noticeable thing for me was that the reporters were all obviously in Dili.

A week ago, the ABC, Australian and Age/SMH were reporting remotely. Now they are all here. I think this is good. (Let me just say that with the slow decline of serious journalism, it would be a bit of a worry if bloggers took over this area of reporting. Its one thing to be reporting a small microcosm that is my world but another to be spending all day digging up the dirt.)

For a while, I have thought that someone needed to explain to me (and everyone else) just how the “gangs” work. This now appears to be a higher priority issue in the reporting. I heard several months back that someone was working on a history of the gangs in Dili (presumably since independence).

I hope it is made public as I believe it will explain a lot of things (to me as well). I noticed one of the press articles mention that up to 70% of all males in Dili are members of a “gang”. My understanding is that the “gangs” are more like “social clubs”, but a couple of “social clubs” have taken to more rough-house behaviour thus morphing into a “gang”.

And “gangs” are into stand-over tactics and some do drugs and probably protection rackets. I am dying to get my hands on this report.

So much has happened this week, but I think it has been the most active week for international security forces since week one. Lots of chopper fuel has been burnt and a resumption of embassy security warnings via mobile phone text messages.

I’ll start with a little chip. The week had been going fairly poorly, the worst for some time. Then yesterday (Friday) morning both a UN spokesman and an ADF spokesman suggested only 2 confirmed dead and the airport fighting as just an elevation of normal gang fighting that has gone on in Dili for a long time. And they said the situation was under control. Now if I was sitting there in OZ hearing this, I might think that everything was AOK. (Note I hear it on Radio Australia via “AM”, “The World Today”, “PM” and “Connect Asia” which is locally re-broadcast on FM radio .)

I am pretty sure that by lunchtime yesterday, the death toll was more than 10 for the week.  But I have often asked just who keeps the figures anyway.
Anyway there have been a number of deaths in the area (on Avenida de Portugal) at the Pertamina corner where segments of the Comorro market traders have been operating a mainly fruit and veg market. That corner and stretching down the beach road past the Malaysian embassy and a few ambassadors residences has been very hot for the last 3 days and highly recommended to avoid. This is effectively the northern end of the well-entrenched trouble spot of Fatuhada.

The airport riot was based around the airport “refugee camp”. The approach to the airport is a 500 metre divided road from a large roundabout. The approach is wire fenced on the east side and has the camp running almost full length on the western side. A group up to 400 were involved in the attack. The word is that it was co-ordinated and that some rioters had been paid (by someone) and were fueled up on alcohol (via the cheap local tua) and methamphetamines.

I am actually glad that the ABC’s Anne Barker is back in town to give a more first-hand account of things. All I can do is piece together things from Google News and tie it in with what I see and other people observe. I do know some people who got caught up in the airport thing just because they were due to fly out to Bali. And someone who was badly shaken by accidentally coming across a rock fight on the beach road near the Malaysian embassy.

We occasionally get mail and stuff via a DHL bag and this had been held up in Customs since last Friday (ie 8 days ago now). In order to get the stuff, both DHL and Customs have to be there to do the paper work. Tuesday was a holiday and Customs had decided to take Monday off and make a long weekend. Then the trouble hit and the Customs guys would not go to work at the airport. The DHL guy did not want to go out there in a DHL vehicle but would go if a white face could accompany him in a another vehicle.

So I thought it a good opportunity to both check out the aftermath of the airport riot and check out DHL/Customs procedures. The road from the roundabout (and all around it) to the airport terminal was strewn with many rocks and stones. There was a reasonably large military presence at the terminal and I spoke to a couple of them while waiting for the Customs guy to arrive. Yep, it had been full-on. (I think I will have to write separately on the DHL/Customs experience as I am sure it doesn’t happen like this in many other places.)

But perhaps the most disturbing thing for me is the output from the rumour mill. Not only did OZ embassy SMS advisories warn of possible targeting of OZ interests, but there have been a number of instances supporting the warning. One rumour has it that the OZ military are responsible for some of the killing this week. This is 100% rubbish but when pumped into the rumour machine, it is hard to stop. Life was not meant to be easy.

Some of the international press reports suggest “Timor in chaos” and similar sentiments.  Apart from a couple of towns in the hills to the south, there is virtually zero trouble outside of Dili itself.  And even then, the trouble is always in pockets.

I had to pick up a few things today from a couple of places in the west of town and it sure was quiet.  There had been a bit more house burning and there were fires burning in a few places.  The Comorro market traders who had moved right next to Comorro Road had vacated today but the Landmark and Leader supermarkets were running as per normal.  The Makikit hardware only had his door open a little but he was open but not much else.  Elsewhere in town in the centre and eastern ends, it appeared to be business as usual by Dili standards.

I even cycled down to the Christo Rei statue at 5pm for a fresh mango juice at “Sol e Mar” then headed back before dusk.  I was wary but not scared in any way.

Of course, ask the helicopter guy who got hit in the face by a rock and was choppered to Darwin for treatment to his eye.  He might not be so mellow about it all.  But the airport area to the west was apparently a real schemozzle yesterday.

I suppose you have 2 choices – you stay at home and heed all security advice or you take your chances and hope you don’t just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  And yes, I have the UN police number in my mobile phone.

Well, what can you say ? News reports suggest that at least 2 people were killed in fighting near the airport. The airport is closed. Blackhawk choppers working all night Tuesday night and a lot of Wednesday – always a key indicator of trouble. Roadblocks setup near the Comorro River bridge severely impacting on movement. Attacks and threats on the Ministry of Education building in another part of town (near the UN Obrigado barracks). Continuing tense atmosphere in the vicinity of the national hospital in the east of town.

You try to piece together the details from various sources as all sorts of people hear slightly different takes on what is happening. Maybe 4 were killed. A friend at one of the medical facilities said 3 deaths occured at their workplace. A shot to the head and a couple of arrows. A lot of the day trying to transport the bodies to the main hospital and/or returning the bodies to the families. The families in a heightened state and angry. Guns carried by civilians now reported as being seen in a number of places.

And you know that after this lot, there will be the inevitable attempts to exact revenge.

This report seems to have distilled most of what I have heard from various sources here :

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/timor-in-chaos-as-leader-murdered/2006/10/25/1161749189170.html

Today in Baucau, the Timorese army (ie F-FDTL) are holding some sort of public meeting to talk about their response to the recent UN report and may well have a response to yesterday’s events. Some of their command were referred to in the UN report. This meeting will be watched with keen interest as so far, they have kept out of the action and out of Dili.

Sundays are usually fairly quiet.  Most shops are closed and if you see large groups, they are usually going to and from church.  The expat supermarkets are always open and I had decided to do a big shop, mainly as I had run out of breakfast cereal but also because the other half was slaving over the cooktop doing something substantial for dinner.

Mid-afternoon I went to Landmark supermarket and noticed the streets extremely quiet if not deserted.  There were a couple of police vehicles with small crowds around them but otherwise nothing.  I thought something must be “going down” (a phrase often used here) when I saw (& heard) the Blackhawk doing quite small circling in an area of Fatuhada only a couple of hundred metres away.

As is quite common, Landmark could not satisfy the full requirements of the shopping list so it was off to Cold Storage at the other end of town.  Still deathly quiet and I thought “this is just what it was like back in May/June”.  Something feels wrong.

And so it was.  Later in the day, Radio Australia reported trouble following the discovery of 2 human torsos in the Comorro market area.  RA reported that 100 foreign police were called in.  Even later in the day, I noticed very slow response when texting on my mobile – 20 minutes before actual delivery of messages.  This was reminiscent of the mobile phone meltdown several months back when everyone was sharing the news on whats going on.

So even though things are generally under control, the tensions in the community are incredibly high and one wonders what can be done to bring it down.  Certainly not  job creation for the major construction works going on in town – landscaping work in the carpark and on the beachfront outside the Palacio do Governo.

Yesterday afternoon, I was visiting a colleague at his residence which is a 1 bedroom unit in a bit of a mish-mash of buildings all contained within a walled compound.

There are quite a few walled compounds in Dili but most are just a fence with a gate and one or two guards. Some may have razor wire or equivalent but this one is just normal fences. (Like septic tank cleaning services, razor wire supplies are a booming industry here.) The compound has guards, gardeners and room cleaning staff like a serviced apartment and rents to foreigners.

Anyway, apart from the consequences of the recent UN report, we were actually discussing job creation and how this was perhaps the biggest reason for much of the recent trouble. As we spoke, there was a commotion outside over the fence. The guards and other staff in the compound were running about the place. It was clear there was a rock fight or similar going on – lots of yelling. One of the guards appeared with blood streaming from his head. He had been walking back to work after collecting his pay and was attacked just outside. He was an easterner (lorosae).

Within minutes, the police (ie UN police) arrived and broke it up. I could see the tops of police vehicles passing by over the easily scalable fence. It was all over in 10 minutes.  When I left, I found myself between 2 police road blocks. As I was on the inside, I was asked if I was OK. They told me that they had used tear gas and rubber bullets. There were rocks all over the road and broken glass from the car or cars that unfortunately were passing at the wrong time.

I pondered just what might have happened if I had decided to leave 30 minutes earlier. However, I still remain confident that a non uniform-wearing white face is not a rock target – as long as they can see your face !