Violence in Dili as UN offers jobs

Violence in Dili as UN offers jobs

DILI, East Timor (Agencies): Violence broke out in Dili on Saturday when
thousands of poor and unemployed East Timorese scrambled to apply for jobs
offered by the United Nations administration.

Some in the crowd of about 7,000 threw rocks at a small group of
international peacekeeping troops and UN police officers.

Witnesses said they were frustrated that their applications for about
2,000 available positions with the world body had been rejected.

About 70 foreign, mainly Australian, peacekeepers and UN civilian police
protected UN administrative officials. Many took shelter behind walls.

One Australian soldier and a television cameraman were injured by flying
rocks.

Clutching their forms, thousands of frustrated East Timorese had been
waited since dawn behind a barbed-wire barricade at Dili's main sports
stadium to apply for a range of jobs with the United Nations, which has a
two to three-year mandate to prepare East Timor for self-government.

"I estimate there were about 7,000 who got somewhat out of control while
they were waiting to be interviewed for jobs, and it became fairly nasty
for a while," Fred Donovan, an Australian commander in the UN's civilian
police force, told Reuters.

He said the crowd had become impatient with the slow pace of interviewing
applicants.

"I think (the problem was) the delay in processing the applications,
that's my assessment of it. Whether there were sufficient people on hand to
process the applications I don't know."

Locals said the crowd was also angry that proficiency in English was a
requirement for the jobs. Few East Timorese speak much English. Indonesian
and Portuguese are mainly spoken in East Timor along with the local Tetum
language.

"They are angry that their applications were rejected because of their
lack of skills," a witness said.

About an hour after the violence started, Nobel Peace laureate Jose
Ramos-Horta arrived at the stadium and appealed for calm. "To come here and
see people using violence makes me feel ashamed," he said.

Interrupting his speech, one East Timorese man called out complaining of
unfair treatment.

"We stayed here and fought for 24 years, but those who traveled around
the world and learned English are now getting all the jobs," he said. "It's
not fair."

The peacekeepers dispersed the crowd after UN officials postponed its job
interview program by a week.

Unemployment in East Timor is a legacy of the systematic destruction of
homes, businesses and government infrastructure by Indonesian armed forces-
backed militias in September. The scorched-earth campaign followed East
Timor's Aug. 30 vote for independence from Indonesia.

Hodzic said that among the UNTAET jobs on offer were language assistants,
administrative and computer clerks, vehicle mechanics, air conditioning
technicians and other experts.

"It is really a wide spectrum," he said.

All employees must have at least some knowledge of English.

"We could not study English like the pro-autonomy (pro-Indonesian)
people,"said Pedro Gomes, one of the thousands queuing to hand in his
application form.