DILI, Timor-Leste, March 5 (UPI) -- The U.N. envoy in Timor-Leste said fugitive Timorese Maj. Alfredo Reinado and his followers bear ultimate responsibility for the weekend violence.
Reinado has been accused of involvement in last year's deadly violence that rocked the tiny former East Timor.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special representative Atul Khare, head of the U.N. Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste, also repeated his call for calm after gangs burnt tires and fought U.N. Police Sunday in Dili, while two vehicles were set on fire in a ministry compound in Gleno-Ermera.
Timorese President Xanana Gusmao asked the International Security Force to conduct an operation against Reinado after he and his followers ransacked several border police posts late last month, stealing weapons and other equipment, and because he had shown "very clearly that he does not respect the state or its institutions."
"UNMIT regrets that the efforts to ensure a peaceful judicial path have not been successful, and would like to stress that it is Reinado's disregard for the laws of Timor-Leste and the wellbeing of its population that have brought us to this point," Khare said, referring to ISF operations in Same, south of Dili.
Late last year the U.N. Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste, etablished to investigate the deadly violence that erupted in May and April, found Reinado and his group were reasonably suspected of committing crimes against life and person during the fighting.
The crisis, attributed to differences between eastern and western regions, erupted in late April with the firing of 600 striking soldiers, a third of the armed forces. Ensuing violence claimed at least 37 lives and drove 155,000 people, 15 per cent of the total population, from their homes.
