The aftermath....

East Timor Rioters Attack UN Convoy as Violence Expands in East

By Emma O'Brien

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Violence in East Timor, sparked by the exclusion of the Fretilin party from government for the first time since independence five years ago, intensified in the country's east with an attack on a United Nations convoy.

Three UN vehicles were ambushed Aug. 11 as they drove between Bacau, East Timor's second-largest city, and Viqueque, where more than 140 houses were destroyed in earlier rioting. Shots were fired and stones were thrown at the convoy, which carried seven UN personnel, two local police officers and an aid worker, said Allison Cooper, the UN mission's spokeswoman.

``The situation in the east remains volatile and extra UN police and military have been deployed there,'' she said by phone from the capital, Dili. ``The attack on the convoy is the worst incident we've seen and it has been very strongly condemned.''

Supporters of Fretilin rioted after the Aug. 6 appointment as prime minister of former President Xanana Gusmao, who assembled a three-party coalition with a parliamentary majority. Fretilin, which won the most votes at the June 30 election and has dominated East Timorese politics since independence from Indonesia, said Gusmao's appointment was unconstitutional.

Australian-led peacekeepers and UN police were deployed to the nation of 1 million people last May, after fighting between groups from the western and eastern regions killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.

Thousands Displaced

Relief supplies and 20 extra soldiers were sent to Viqueque, about five hours drive east of Dili, Cooper said. As many as 2,000 people are estimated to have been displaced there, she added.

Police are also investigating claims by a priest that ``several'' girls were raped Aug. 12 in a convent in the country's east, the Associated Press reported. Father Basilio Maria Ximenes said an 8-year-old girl was among those assaulted at the Salesian Don Bosco Convent, AP said.

The UN received a report of a rape and had been told the perpetrator was arrested, Cooper said.

Fretilin offered to investigate the UN convoy attack, which it said was provoked by UN police destroying protesters' banners and flags, the party said in an e-mailed statement.

``We condemn all acts of violence and again call on our supporters and those of other parties to exercise their legal right to demonstrate by peaceful means,'' party Vice President Arsenio Bano said. He denounced ``rumors reported in foreign media'' that Fretilin had distributed weapons to its supporters in order to provoke an armed insurrection in the country.

Gusmao, who was imprisoned for more than six years for his pro-independence activities, pledged to unite the nation when he was sworn in last week.

He will run a country that has a jobless rate of 50 percent, where about 42 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. While holding the rights to an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of gas and 300 million barrels of light oil, East Timor is one of the region's poorest countries. The former Portuguese colony was occupied by Indonesia for 24 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma O'Brien in Wellington on eobrien6@bloomberg.net