NZ consul flees rioters as Timor's capital burns

By SCOTT MacLEOD and AGENCIES

Dozens of New Zealanders were sheltering in Dili overnight after a rampaging mob set fires in the East Timor capital.

Officials said one student died in the street riots, though a witness reported that he had seen five people killed and many others badly hurt when police sprayed bullets into a crowd of 500 people.

The New Zealand consul-general sheltered in Army barracks when violence flared five blocks from her consulate.

Last night authorities imposed a curfew and sent United Nations troops onto the streets.

The rioting erupted after an angry, stone-throwing crowd demanded the release from police custody of a student. In the rampage, fires started at an Australian-owned supermarket and the ANZ bank. Other buildings, including the Parliament, were also attacked.

The consul-general, Susannah Gordon, said all New Zealanders seem to be okay.

"As far as I know, they're safe and sound. There are businesses that are burned."

Ms Gordon said two hotels seemed to have been burned, including Hotel Timor, and there had been looting.

President Xanana Gusmao, the former resistance leader, was forced to flee when he tried to calm protesters.

"His convoy found itself in the middle of the confrontation," said a Portuguese journalist.

"Xanana Gusmao had to leave the car he was travelling in and the students continued to pelt the police with stones.

"A number of police from the riot control group covered President Xanana with shields to protect him."

The President broadcast a national appeal to try to halt the violence, the worst since East Timor's independence from Indonesia on May 20.

Ms Gordon said a mixture of issues sparked the unrest. A lot of the anger was directed at police, and there was 70 per cent unemployment in Dili. A lot of people had thought independence would bring quick prosperity.

Most New Zealand peacekeepers have pulled out of East Timor, but a defence spokesman said eight or nine, including a senior officer, were still in Dili.

Foreign Affairs put the figure at five in Dili, and six more based nearby as part of a team teaching local soldiers to use small arms.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there were records of 39 non-Army New Zealanders in East Timor, mostly in Dili. Most are aid workers or private contractors.



The Australian Hello Mister supermarket, which sells expensive imported goods to United Nations workers and other foreigners, was destroyed and about A$1 million of stock was lost, said Robert McVicker, chief executive of the owner, Morris Corporation.

He said two local staff members suffered minor injuries.

Some Government officials said they suspected a radical group known as RDTL was behind the student unrest.

"This is an orchestrated manoeuvre to topple the Government," Rogerio Lobato, the Minister of Internal Affairs, told AFP.

Mr Lobato blamed people linked to RDTL, a hardline nationalist group which has been tied to previous unrest and was not part of the mainstream independence movement during Indonesian occupation.

Herald feature: Indonesia and East Timor