Thousands urge removal of Timor Prime Minister

DILI - Some 2000 protesters rallied in Timor's violence-stricken capital yesterday demanding the removal of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, blaming him for the unrest that has left parts of the city in ruins and burning.

Protesters in trucks, buses and on motorbikes shouted "bring down Alkatiri" and voiced support for President Xanana Gusmao as they entered Dili escorted by international peacekeepers.

Protest spokesman Major Augusto de Araujo Tara read a petition calling on Gusmao to "disband the national parliament now and topple the Mari Alkatiri government".

The petition called for a transitional government in the world's youngest nation, led by Gusmao as military commander, to hold new parliamentary elections this month. Elections are not due until May 2007.

East Timor has been rocked by violence since the government sacked 600 troops for protesting over alleged discrimination in the army against soldiers from the country's western region by mostly eastern officers.

Initially police and troops clashed, but now east and west youth gangs roam the streets fighting and looting.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said poor governance by East Timorese authorities was to blame for the country's spiral into violence.

As the protesters drove through the capital, passing the parliament, thousands of residents lined the streets cheering.

An estimated 100,000 people have been displaced by the violence, with thousands camped out in church grounds and parks, too frightened to return to their homes.

Gusmao again called for an end to the violence.

"I am very proud of you and appreciate you coming," he told the protesters. "But I ask you to return to your own places, because there are many problems that have to be solved." "I do not want to see any more houses burned. No more burning, no more killing," he said.

The protesters later left the city, escorted by Malaysian and Australian troops. A 2500-strong Australian-led peacekeeping force patrols Dili.

"Of course in a democracy it's their right to come and protest," Australian Lieutenant-Colonel Mick Mumford told reporters. "My job is to make sure that it's not violent." Hundreds of young men reportedly looted a warehouse near the centre of Dili on Tuesday, running off with agricultural machinery, bags of grain, sheet metal and fertiliser. Plumes of smoke rose from buildings set on fire by rampaging gangs.

The east-west divide in East Timor's population of around 1 million first surfaced during the bloody referendum in 1999 on independence from Indonesia.

Although ethnically and linguistically identical, westerners were seen as more pro-Indonesian and easterners more pro-independence.

East Timor became independent in 2002 after being run by the United Nations for two-and-a-half years after the referendum.

- REUTERS