Word: timor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...might have thought the citizens of the tiny new nation of East Timor would be tired of violence. Hundreds were killed when Indonesia's departing military forces and pro-Jakarta militias implemented a scorched-earth policy in 1999; last year 37 people died and more than 150,000 fled their homes as tensions between the local police and military erupted. But last week it appeared some Timorese were still willing to make mischief to further their political ambitions. On Monday, President Jose Ramos-Horta announced the appointment as Prime Minister of former resistance fighter Xanana Gusmão, who leads...
...Within minutes of Ramos-Horta's announcement Fretilin activists, most of them from Timor's eastern provinces, poured into the streets from their refugee camps dotted around the capital, Dili. They set up barricades of tires, stones and bushes wherever roads bordered the camps, and from behind them launched rock attacks on passing cars. In the grounds of Dili hospital, Fretilin supporters living in tents pitched in the grassy courtyards between the wards emerged to taunt westerners living nearby. As the shouting turned into fighting, UN police, New Zealand soldiers and Portuguese Republican National Guard with riot gear and bullet...
...nation of East Timor was born in bloodshed. Hundreds of civilians died in 1999 as departing soldiers from Indonesia, which ruled the half-island for 24 years, torched the country. The United Nations quickly moved in, restored peace and set about providing this traumatized country with the basics of nationhood, from a constitution to government ministries. By 2004, the UN administration was confident enough about East Timor's start-up democracy that it began pulling out troops...
...Support for Fretilin this time around was roughly half that amount, and the party is increasingly viewed as out of touch with East Timor's poverty-stricken masses. "In five years, Fretilin was not able to do anything to make this country better," says Lucia Lobato, a politician with the opposition Social Democratic Party. "People have lost patience...
...other political force has been able to fully capitalize on Fretilin's waning popularity, not even Gusmão's CNRT. Although the party was founded by East Timor's most beloved leader, CNRT was formed so hastily earlier this year that it was not able to build the electoral infrastructure needed to convert respect for Gusmão into actual votes. Still, Gusmão could very well end up as the country's Prime Minister after coalition talks take place over the coming weeks...