Latest news from an acquaintance who works in the main government buildings (Palacio de Governu) is that windows have been smashed and cars set on fire in the carpark. I don’t know the number of cars involved but my contact thinks around 3 or 4. This news came from a colleague who told my contact to avoid going back to work after lunch.

Having smashed windows and torched cars, there was no suggestion of entering the building or stealing anything.

However, other reports suggest that one of the supermarkets used frequently by foreigners (the Lita supermarket) has closed following trouble and there is a suggestion of looting or at least fear of looting.

At the moment, I am not moving but I may go for a little reccy in an hour or so. At 4pm, there is meant to be some form of deadline, so I shall wait until then.

The mobile phone network remains fully clogged up most of the time. The streets are quiet.

Firstly, I have no first-hand knowledge of events described in the international press as riots in Dili. I just get a few tit-bits from Timorese, other foreigners and from what I have seen myself.

As for what I have seen, I do know that the locals are a bit nervous. They remember a time not so long ago when a group of demonstrators roaming the streets meant death and destruction. So even if the groups doing this now are mostly well-meaning demonstrators with a labour dispute, you can understand the nervousness. No-one wants their house trashed or to visit a relative in hospital.

I have cycled past the government buildings where most of the more formal demonstration action is taking place and the entire area has been barricaded off. The orange cones do not stop the loopy foreigner on his bicycle so I have gone a bit further than any car driver. In the zone, there are a lot of young men in civilian clothes (but a lot wearing army shirts) who one must assume are sacked soldiers.

They pretty much ignored me but did not ignore any other Timorese entering the zone. When I got to the picket line, I chose to withdraw. But in this central area of town, there are a number of military and police types with automatic weapons strapped to their sides so not much has gone wrong here, although I did see signs of window breakage and a trashed street vendor’s wagon.

Most of the violent stuff has been occurring further out in the suburbs mostly to the south and south-east. The Taibesse market area seems to be the current melting point and there have been reports of a shooting and stabbings.

There was a key meeting last night between the President, Prime Minister and some demonstration leaders. Reports indicate that no ground was gained and things are said to be very tense today. There are no mini-buses (microlets) running and it is generally pretty quiet.

The following BBC report tells a bit more about things I don’t directly know :
E Timor troops riot over sacking

One point which it seems to miss is that the violent part of the unrest appears to have little to do with the military labour dispute itself. My understanding is that the main issue is the tensions between Timor-Leste westerners and easterners (monu versus lorosae). The violent bits at this stage, appear to be westerners picking on easterners who now reside in Dili (Dili being on the west of the divide).

If you draw a north-south line through Manatuto (President Xanana Gusmao’s birthplace), you have the border separating these two groups, but I must point out that it is only a minority who go along with this east-west divide.

More trouble is expected this afternoon. And Monday is the Labour Day holiday – a fine day to make a point for a labour dispute.

I can feel another cycle coming on …

While in Bali, we heard and read stories from Dili of street riots, trashing of shops and people escaping to Indonesia to save themselves.

I seem to recall cycling home across Dili late on the Saturday of the weekend when all this happened. I saw nothing.

I have tried to piece together as much as possible but lay no claim to incredible accuracy. But I know of no expat who has been involved in or seen any trouble. Most of the talk comes from the Timorese themselves and is based on rumour and there appears to be some degree of exaggeration.

However, there definitely was some trouble and it was fairly specifically targeted, it seems. It appears to have been related to fall-out over the recent sacking of 500 or so military staff from the army. Although this issue was primarily over poor wages, it also uncovered the long-running (and well-known) tensions between those who live in the western half of Timor Leste and those who live in the eastern half.

Some good old-fashioned intolerance rose to the surface and some of the other persuasion found their house or shop the target of rocks and the like. Travel out of Dili was not recommended as cars were being stopped by masked groups and if the incorrect allegiance given, cars were known to be trashed (windows broken and tyres slashed). I think most of the trouble spots were really in the “suburbs” and villages outside of Dili.

More later.

I came across “The Hope Orphanage” blog recently (hopeintimor.blogspot.com/) and it took me a minute before I realised I had actually been there and stayed the night on the floor in the big room which has the kitchen, classroom and recreation room. I slept between 2 desks in the classroom area.

I hope I don’t get this wrong but it is run by an Australian couple Isa and Ina Bradridge. As far as I can tell, they have no religious affiliations and are doing this just because ! Isa is about mid-40s, drinks beer and is a thoroughly worldly and pleasant man.

I had a long chat with Isa about how his 3 months of setting up an orphanage turned into years (can’t remember how many). He seemed tired. I didn’t realise that his day job was running the free weekly English language newspaper the Timor Sun, which unfortunately is holding on by the skin of its teeth. This paper is devoured by all English speaking expats as it provides a few tidbits of local stuff and is the only real place to advertise services to the English speaking community. I can grind my way through the Tetun language newspapers but it is so much harder.

Anyway, the orphans at the Hope Orphanage in Gleno (50kms from Dili) are the lucky ones. Isa has obviously busted his gut over this. He does have some very kind benefactors who can get funds to him directly with no middlemen. The Timor Sun did have a web page once but it seems to have stalled and not been updated for some time.

If you want to say g’day to Isa, I am sure the message will get through via the blog or give him some goss at the Timor Sun via [email protected].

It had to come – starting to sound intelligent I mean.

The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) have just released the National Human Development Report 2006 for Timor Leste.

It paints a fairly black picture but at least Timor Leste has petroleum income from the Timor Sea and if used wisely, the country will get itself back into shape. But that is up to the local politicians to play a fair game.

Some snippets from the report …

The report can be downloaded here

The “Truth and Reconcilation Report” (commonly referred to as CAVR – the Portuguese abbreviation) was released on 2 February on the internet (www.ictj.com).

In the words of the report itself, the intention of the report is :
“to establish the truth about the human rights violations which occurred in Timor-Leste throughout the 25-year period between 1974 and 1999”.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that East Timor achieved independence in 2002 after a popular referendum in 2000, gave 74% support for full independence. This came after some fairly turbulent times when Indonesian-backed “militias” ransacked the country when the Indonesians withdrew in 1999.

The 25 years refers to the period when the Indonesian ruled the country after the withdrawal of the Portuguese in 1974.

I’ll leave the 2500 page report (actually 2664 pages in downloadable PDF format) for you to read at your leisure and summarise by the weekend, but lets just say some pretty nasty stuff went on.

From this end, one of the fascinating features of this nasty period of world history, is the reaction of the Timorese people themselves. In general, there is no enduring desire for vengeance. I guess most people have their own battles to fight just to survive, but basically, the people come across as very peaceful and calm. Most foreigners comment on this.

Of course, there are some people who are genuinely seeking some sort of redress.

President Xanana Gusmao, who himself spent 10 years in a Jakarta prison, seems genuinely insistent that seeking revenge is not the way to go and things will be better if the terms of engagement with the quite different current Indonesian government are best served by moving on.

However, looking at it from a world perspective, it is probably best that the truth come out and the bad bits are not just swept under the carpet. But who knows what will happen from here.