15 detained over riot

DILI: East Timor police chief Col. Jusuf Muharam confirmed 15 men were being detained for their involvement in the Dec. 24 riot here in which an army corporal was killed and 11 people injured.

He said the police were still searching for 12 other suspects, Antara reported yesterday.

The riot occurred when tens of thousands of East Timorese took to the streets to welcome Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo back from Europe where he had been to accept his 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

The crowd lined the streets, stretching seven kilometers from the Komoro airport to Villaverde Cathedral, west of Dili, where Belo was to give an address.

A scuffle also broke out in a waiting room at the airport shortly before Belo's plane landed.