Word: gusmao
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...tear gas. They regrouped the next day and, armed with rocks and slingshots, marched toward police headquarters. The police fired warning shots in the air, then apparently aimed lower, killing a 14-year-old and fatally wounding an 18-year-old. The mob erupted in fury. President Xanana Gusmao, widely revered for his role in bringing freedom to East Timor, tried in vain to calm the enraged youths. They smashed windows in the parliamentary offices, looted a hotel, destroyed an Australian-owned supermarket that had been among the first foreign businesses to open in independent East Timor and torched several...
...Even as the authorities announced an inquiry, theories were quickly floated as to the causes of the unrest. Without specifying by whom, Gusmao, Alkatiri and the U.N., which maintains peacekeepers in East Timor, all declared that the students had been provoked to riot. That's possible. East Timor's diverse ex-guerrilla groups used to be united in the fight against Indonesia's military. But now they are falling out over who should run the country and how, not least because many former rebels are jobless and disenfranchised, and feel cheated by the new government. Recent weeks have seen...
...Despite a preponderance of farmers, East Timor still imports rice and other staples. Meanwhile, an offshore oil drilling agreement with Australia is bogged down in negotiations. Riots are the last thing a nation desperate for foreign investment needs. "If you burn people's houses and steal their possessions," said Gusmao in a national radio broadcast, "they will leave. Then we will be alone with our poverty, without help, forgotten...
...Prime Minister Alkatiri?who led the effort to make Portuguese the national language even though only a fraction of Timorese speak it?belongs to this class, and his ministers have come under attack from less privileged compatriots who think their lifestyle too lavish. A few days before the riots, Gusmao himself launched a withering attack on the administration, calling it incompetent and uncaring. "We cannot justify our situation simply because we are a new government," he told TIME. "We must be more responsible, and show people we are doing something...
...Many East Timorese are now calling for Gusmao to play a bigger part in government beyond his largely ceremonial role as President. At the very least, his character is above reproach. A realist, Gusmao also recognized earlier than most that independence would be no picnic. During the May celebrations, he warned people not to get carried away, telling them patience would be needed. If last week's unrest is any indicator, East Timorese are already running...