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 09 May 2008 18:08 BST

New PM appointment sparks East Timor rioting

Tuesday, 07 Aug 2007 18:09
East Timor is dominated by poverty
Political tensions spilled over into violence in East Timor today as police were forced to use tear gas to combat rioting all over the south-east Asian country.

Gangs of youths burned tyres, looted shops, set fire to buildings and threw rocks in the capital Dili and other towns, including Baucau in the east, in unrest sparked by the appointment of a new prime minister.

Xanana Gusmao, former president of East Timor, was chosen to set up a new government by current president Jose Ramos-Horta after no clear winner emerged from June's parliamentary elections.

Although a popular leader, Mr Gusmao's appointment is being contested on legal grounds by the previous ruling party, Fretilin, whose supporters are believed to be behind the current violence.

"This is not a democracy of 50 or 100 years like Australia," Arsenio Bano of Fretilin told the Bloomberg news agency.

"The understanding of democracy here is still very limited and it is that if you get the most votes, you win the election.''

International peacekeepers were called into the predominantly Catholic nation, which has ruled itself since gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002, after fighting broke out between rival police and army forces last year.

The violence killed 37 and forced an estimated 155,000 people from their homes.End of story

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