Viqueque street brawl arrests rise to 109

DILI, East Timor (JP): The number of people arrested in recent street brawls in the Viqueque district, 140 kilometers east of here, rose to 105 yesterday, police said.

East Timor Deputy Police Chief Col. Atok Rismanto said the people had been detained at the Viqueque police precinct for questioning on their involvement in the unrest.

"The authorities will decide who should be prosecuted," Atok told The Jakarta Post. "The rest will be returned to their families."

Church and government sources said the brawls that took place from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 involved church activists and a group of prointegration youths associated with Gada Paksi, an organization closely linked to the military.

Catholic priests in the Viqueque parish who witnessed the violence said Thursday the unrest started when the Gada Paksi youths waylaid 10 church activists en route to a meeting in Viqueque town.

They said the prointegration youths attacked the church activists without reason and hurled abuse at the accompanying priests after their demands for identity cards were turned down.

But in Dili, Gada Paksi Chairman Marcal de Almeida denied his organization was involved in the brawls although he admitted that one or two members might have been.

He said in that in the Uatolary subdistrict, where the fighting occurred, Gada Pakso had only six members. "How can they fight a larger group of people? Besides many of us are church activists too."

Marcal admitted that Gada Paksi had a bad reputation in East Timor because it was always associated with the army and almost always implicated in cases of violence, such as the recent assault on Tiras magazine journalists.

He said Gada Paksi was established with financial assistance from Maj. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, commander of the Army Special Force, to help people find decent jobs. (33/pan)