Military appeals for calm in E. Timor

DILI, East Timor (JP): The military authority appealed for calm yesterday after the city was rocked by a series of violent demonstrations.

Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Adang Ruchiatna Puradiredja flew in from his headquarters in Denpasar on Friday night to oversee the operation to restore calm and order.

Adang, who was scheduled to be replaced on Monday, promised the East Timorese that the people responsible for the rioting would be brought to justice.

This includes a correctional facility official whose remarks to inmates at Maliana prison, 73 kilometers southwest of Dili, reportedly offended the local people and sparked the unrest on Friday.

"This is a state based on law. Those who are guilty will be prosecuted," Adang told reporters on Friday night.

Sanusi, a warden at the Maliana correctional facility, is already in police custody.

Twenty-four inmates said they heard him making offensive remarks about Roman Catholicism last Monday. When news of this reached the public, apparently through leaflets produced by inmates, a group of people went to look for Sanusi at his residence in Dili on Friday.

When they could not find Sanusi at home, the rioting began. It quickly spread to other parts of Dili and a number of neighboring towns.

"We won't let him go," Adang said during a press briefing also attended by Col. Mahidin Simbolon, the chief of the East Timor Military District, and Sugianto Andreas, the East Timor police chief.

Adang appealed to the public for restraint. "Don't let yourselves be easily provoked," he said.

Adang said that 41 of the people who took part in the riots have been detained for questioning.

He said that six officers were injured during the riots and several police vehicles were overturned and set on fire.

One person was reported to have died in the rioting and several others were injured. Police arrested a total of 46 people for rioting.

Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo also visited the scene of the riots on Friday and made a public appeal for calm.

"We know the task of the Bishop is very difficult," Maj. Gen. Adang said, urging the people to heed Belo's call. "If people don't listen to the Bishop, who else will they listen to?" (yac)