Viqueque street brawl arrests rise to 109

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)