I have been struggling to find anything really positive over the last week.\u00a0 The international press have been here and been reporting more than I can keep up with.\u00a0 With a lot of the trouble out east, there is little I can add from Dili … except no yogurt for over a week !!<\/p>\n
A week ago, we had Rogerio Lobato leaving by Lear Jet.\u00a0 99.99% of Timorese couldn’t afford to pay to taxi one of these to the runway.\u00a0 However, it seems that Mr. Lobato was handed US$30,000 from the government coffers and given the green light to skip town for Malaysia.\u00a0 Nice one.<\/p>\n
Then Fretilin seemed to go troppo and threaten to boycott parliament.\u00a0 On top of that, they encouraged supporters to voice their opinion and complain about the election result.\u00a0 Even “Jack Hill the blind miner” could see that this was going to lead to trouble.\u00a0 It did.\u00a0 The UN called a few meetings and (finally) read the riot act and things calmed down here in Dili.\u00a0 And now Fretilin are not going to boycott parliament and are now encouraging supporters not to resort to violence.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile out east, Fretilin supporters went feral and as far as I can tell from UN reports, scorched many homes (mostly small huts by western standards) and eventually culminating in an ambush of a UN vehicle and (quite separately) the rape of a young girl at an orphanage.\u00a0 I understand the President was due to go out to the same general area last week but cancelled his visit.<\/p>\n
The streets in Dili after dark have been pretty quiet over the last week.\u00a0 Today was Assumption Day so a number of locals were on holidays.\u00a0 There were advisories recommending caution today as demonstrations were planned.\u00a0 I think nothing much happened as the demos were cancelled and re-scheduled for next week.<\/p>\n
The new ferry, the Nakroma was parked offshore today which is the preferred position when trouble is on the cards.<\/p>\n
I think this is why beer was invented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been struggling to find anything really positive over the last week.\u00a0 The international press have been here and been reporting more than I can keep up with.\u00a0 With a lot of the trouble out east, there is little … Continue reading