For about 10 days, it has been relatively peaceful with no sign of the frenetic night-time rock fights. I have’nt heard anybody mention it much in that time. And I certainly have not heard anything to keep me awake at nights. I believe the OZ travel warnings have not been downgraded during this time.
Apart from the weekend air traffic which FOS over at XananaRepublic can describe better than me and some sort of ground operation on Sunday in the area behind the Backpackers (in parts, known as Farol, Palo Paso and Mandarin), I have heard nothing until yesterday. Again, FOS got an early inkling of things changing again with SMS warnings for the Bairo Pite, Banana Road and Comorro bridge areas. And if the UN have upped their staff security warnings, then I will take it that things are warming up again.
The published UN security reports talk of an incident on Monday night where 6 houses were torched in the Kuluhun Atas area. (I think this is just north of Taibesse.) Although it does not say, other information suggests there was shooting involved in that incident. And I heard yesterday of a shooting incident at the National Hospital IDP camp. The shots were not fired by international security forces.
With an armed F-FDTL (army) now operating in a static capacity at government buildings, its hard to know if they or the PNTL (police) were involved in the firing of guns. I have heard that F-FDTL do adopt a more flexible attitude to static security than UNPol prefer to be the case. (Note that F-FDTL operate independently from international forces while PNTL work with UNPol officers.)
So I guess the usual night-time warnings should still be heeded in the Bairo Pite, Banana Road and Comorro River bridge areas and we will see how all this develops over the next few days.
Meanwhile, have a look at the pictures over at XananaRepublic where FOS clearly would prefer a return to “beer and skittles”.
that first picture in FOS’s blog is amazing. where is it?
That’s Dollar Beach, about 35km along the coast road from Dili.
I loosened the underwear today and to be honest, it feels as safe as before the fan broke last year. I know there is the possibility of things breaking out again, but it is also good for the soul to get out and just do stuff while things are fine.
But don’t be fooled. There are still thousands in IDP camps around town who still feel unable to go home, if they still have one.
It does take a bit of convincing sometimes, but I am prepared to accept that Sunday’s chopper display was actually a training exercise. Seemed implausible at the time until someone tells you that there was a rotation of chopper pilots and I guess it is not such a bad thing to get the new boys out for a romp because the next trip might be in the middle of the night in a strange city.
Not really ‘beer and skittles’ Squatter, I’d much prefer ‘peace and normality’, although I’ll take the beer and you can have the skittles!