Punish Dili market arsonists: Governor
DILI, East Timor (JP): The governor urged law enforcers yesterday to take stiff action against the suspected separatist rebels who allegedly torched the Old Mercado market on Saturday.
Abilio Jose Osorio Soares said the culprits deserved hefty punishment because their crime had stopped hundreds of innocent people making a living.
"Not only that, their act has also inflicted a great loss on the state," Abilio said.
Police said five of the six alleged arsonists had been arrested.
The arson at the market, built in 1910 by the Portuguese colonial administration, was the latest of Fretilin separatist rebels' escalating attacks on military and civilian targets in the past two months.
Fretilin rebels, who have waged low-level guerrilla warfare since East Timor became part of Indonesia in 1976, are suspected of carrying out attacks that have killed more than 30 people in the past month.
The flurry of attacks has drawn concern from foreign governments and human rights campaigners.
In Wellington, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Don McKinnon condemned yesterday reports of renewed violence in East Timor, AFP reported.
He said he was concerned by reports that about 30 civilians, police and soldiers had been killed in past weeks, apparently in attacks by the independence movement Fretilin.
"The government condemns the use of violence for political ends. It is not acceptable anywhere, or by anyone," he said.
McKinnon said New Zealand would continue to support United Nations efforts aimed at a just, comprehensive and internationally acceptable settlement of East Timor's sovereignty.
"I have asked the New Zealand embassy in Jakarta to continue to monitor developments in East Timor closely," McKinnon said.
Saturday's fire destroyed about 500 kiosks, causing a loss of about Rp 5 billion (more than US$2 million).
Local authorities relocated traders to Comoro market in the western suburbs and Becora market on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Abilio said it would be too expensive to rebuild the market, and the most that the government could do was to restore it.
He said the market arson was politically motivated and not a form of protest over economic disparity between locals and migrants.
"I believe all the incidents will not deter investors to invest in East Timor," he said.
He claimed self-exiled proindependence leader Jose Ramos Horta was behind the recent attacks and was trying to keep his idea of an independent East Timor on the international agenda.
East Timor police chief Jusuf Mucharam told The Jakarta Post that police had arrested five of the six people suspected of setting fire to the Old Mercado market.
The suspects admitted to police they worked for Fretilin leader David Alex, who coordinates activities in central East Timor.
All of the five arrested have admitted involvement in the ambush of a military truck in Quelicai, Baucau, on May 31.
After burning the Old Mercado market, the rebels had planned to attack more military targets in Dili, Jusuf said.
"I don't mean to say for sure that they are security disturbers but they admitted they were under the command of David Alex," he said.
Meanwhile, Dili Mayor Mateus Maia said his administration would lose Rp 1.5 billion a year in taxes from the Old Mercado market.
He said local government had agreed to provide alternative market places but had refused to compensate those who had lost their livelihood.
"I propose that the customary laws be imposed on the suspects. They should be tied to a pole in public places and people affected by their criminal acts give their opinion on what should be done to the culprits," he said. (33/pan)