UNITED NATIONS, May 5 (UPI) -- Timor-Leste Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta says his tiny country's capital of "Dili is on the edge; fear is palpable" from a week of disorder.
Saying he was before the U.N. Security Council Friday to argue for a "small but robust" United Nations presence in the former East Timor for one year, the foreign minister denied more than five people had been killed, saying he was inviting special human rights rapporteurs to check out the reports.
Ramos-Horta said the unrest had forced a mass exodus from the capital by people already traumatized from past violence. Dili was all but leveled in 1999 by marauding bands of pro-Indonesia demonstrators after the independence-seeking Timorese won the vote.
"There are concerns about the ability of the National Police to maintain law and order, as well as concern about the cohesion within the remaining National Army," called in to back up police when they were unable to maintain order, he said.
However, the foreign minister reassured the panel of 15, the same leadership that had guided the Timorese people through the last 30 years was determined to overcome this new challenge.
The trouble erupted a week ago after 594 fired soldiers were joined in protest demonstrations by what Ramos-Horta called, "essentially a mob of hooligans," hijacking the demonstrations and the protesting military's agenda.
Although the situation has since calmed down, he said rumors and panic had sparked an exodus from Dili to outlying areas.
Dili is "a wake-up call for the country's leadership, as well as the international community, that all stakeholders must not take for granted the apparent tranquility in the country and that urgent preventive measures must be taken, in a resolute manner, to prevent a relapse," Ramos-Horta said.
