Police tightens security in Kupang

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: Police have tightened security at United Nations representative offices in East Nusa Tenggara following rumors of possible assaults over the weekend, Antara reported.

The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor's (UNTAET) representative office in Kupang was the first to get special police protection as a group of 13 refugees has been staging a hunger strike outside the building since Friday.

The hunger strikers demanded that the UNTAET leave the province arguing that East Nusa Tenggara was outside the UN administration's jurisdiction.

Earlier last week several hundred pro-integration refugees gathered outside the provincial council to air their demands. Initially the protest was peaceful but it eventually turned violent.

The news agency reported that previously demonstrators also handed a parcel containing a set of women's underwear to the UNTAET representative in Kupang to be delivered to UNTAET chief Sergio Vierra de Melo in Dili in a mocking gesture.