With the ex-Minister of the Interior, Rogerio Lobato, going to court today to answer charges of conspiracy and arms offences, it has been expected that there may be security issues this week.

A romp around today seemed to indicate that many locals have avoided un-necessary travel.  The queue at the ANZ bank was absent and I take that as my best guide.  (The ATM machine still didn’t work !)  It seemed that 5% of shops were shut for the day and people numbers on the streets were down.
Although it has been referred to as a demonstration, the bits I saw of about 25 trucks full of Lobato supporters suggested more of a rally than a demonstration.  No suggestion of aggro but a hint of a well-organised, stage managed production.  As I didn’t trail around after them, I can say little more than that.

But I did see road closures near the UN military HQ at Camp Phoenix and evidence of a large number of people having consumed water from sealed plastic cups – these were littered in their hundreds on the grass verge outside the Camp.

Some say these rallies will ramp up over the next 3 or 4 days.