Riot-hit Ambeno returns to normal
By Lourenco Vicente Martins
AMBENO, East Timor (JP): Peace returned to this enclave yesterday after it was rocked by a riot Friday, though the fate of 329 people left homeless remains uncertain.
Ambeno military district commander Lt. Col. Hambali told visiting East Timor military commander Col. Mahidin Simbolon yesterday that people in the regency, 285 kilometers west of Dili, had resumed their daily activities.
Regent Filomeno da Costa Mesquita and informal leader Jose Hermenegildo were present at the meeting with Simbolon.
The police arrested three people Saturday on charges of inciting the riot. The police are also chasing a man suspected of fatally stabbing Mahmud Abuh, a 30-year-old migrant from South Sulawesi, and other rioters who burned down a market and scores of houses during Friday's riot.
Eleven people, including a rioter identified as Agustinho Bonhe, 18, were injured in Friday's riot sparked by an alleged insult of a local Catholic priest.
The angry mob also set fire to 86 houses belonging to the Bugis community and destroyed three cars and four motorcycles. Hambali said that estimated financial losses caused by the rioting, the first-ever to hit the regency, were put at Rp 2 billion (US$840,000).
The homeless Bugis people are being accommodated in barracks at the police's district office and the military's subdistrict office. Filomeno has donated two tons of rice and Rp 5 million to the Bugis.
Hambali said that the riot has caused a number of teachers from outside East Timor to consider leaving the regency.
Some 6,000 local people went on a rampage after hearing that their priest, Lazarus Mau, had been given a box containing leftover food during a post-Idul Fitri gathering with the local government on Wednesday in the regency capital of Pantai Makasar.
Simbolon said that the organizers of the gathering would be questioned and legal proceedings sought for the rioters.
"Let's take the incident as a blessing in disguise. I believe certain people wanted the riot to explode and the military district commander here should be held responsible for the case," Simbolon said.
Regent Filomeno said that the dispute was ended by a peaceful agreement between Lazarus, organizers of the gathering and local authorities on Saturday.
Lazarus, who also attended the meeting, said that the organizers had apologized for the misunderstanding. The priest announced to Catholic community during yesterday's mass that the case had been resolved.
"There should be no more rioting now that a peaceful agreement has been reached," Lazarus said.
He said he could not understand why his people reacted so harshly to the incident.
"I left the gathering earlier and decided to avoid any contact with my people," he said. "But rumors said I had been poisoned and killed."