Buildings torched in E.Timor; Fretilin retreats

DILI (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor Prime Minister Alkatiri turned back from a march on the capital on Wednesday, but several buildings were torched as feuding gangs clashed in Dili.

Alkatiri quit on Monday after weeks of protests and, while President Xanana Gusmao considered the ruling Fretilin party's suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party supporters gathered outside Dili, preparing to march on the capital.

But on Wednesday a Reuters correspondent traveled east of the city and saw the supporters had dispersed and retreated to the town of Metinaro, around 40 km (25 miles) away, where around just 1,500 remained, gathered in the grounds of a school.


Hopes for an end to more than two months of violence had fizzled out on Tuesday as news spread of the gathering by Fretilin party supporters, most of whom are pro-Alkatiri.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-06-28T055251Z_01_SP237989_RTRUKOC_0_US-TIMOR.xml

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=TL&seq=10 disagrees about the 'linguistically identical' part. Now, these are languages, not ethnicities, but this article's fallibility bodes poorly for the 'ethnically identical' bit.

A quick goggling (both of the net, and my memory) turns up that earlier stories dwelt on the ethnic part. People politically-minded say no, but some people view everything as politics; they simply don't like the very idea of ethnic or religious tensions.

If it's ethnic, that's bad indeed. Harder to address those grievances.