Going Up in Smoke

When East Timor formally celebrated its independence in May, it closed the chapter on four centuries of stern Portuguese colonization and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The mood was finally one of hope for the future, of anticipation of a peace dividend. Some commentators even spoke of the fledgling country as a template for nation building in Afghanistan.

But last week East Timor got a reality check. A protest that turned ugly resulted in the worst violence since the 1999 vote for independence, when the Indonesian military and its local militia henchmen killed up to 2,000 East Timorese and destroyed some 80% of the territory’s infrastructure. More importantly, say some observers, the rioting reflects growing public frustration and anger with the many problems plaguing East Timor and the government’s seeming inability to tackle them. “The people took the opportunity to let everything outall their rage over the lack of norms and regulations in their society,” says Bishop Carlos Belo, one of East Timor’s most respected leaders.

The fuse was lit last Tuesday when police in the capital, Dili, barged into a high school to seize a student over a homicide stemming from a gang fight. Outraged over the manner of the arrest by what is an unpopular force, hundreds of fellow students took to the streets and set fire to a pair of police motorcycles before being repelled by tear gas. They regrouped the next day and, armed with rocks and slingshots, marched toward police headquarters. The police fired warning shots in the air, then apparently aimed lower, killing a 14-year-old and fatally wounding an 18-year-old. The mob erupted in fury. President Xanana Gusmao, widely revered for his role in bringing freedom to East Timor, tried in vain to calm the enraged youths. They smashed windows in the parliamentary offices, looted a hotel, destroyed an Australian-owned supermarket that had been among the first foreign businesses to open in independent East Timor and torched several other buildings, including two houses belonging to the family of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. By nightfall, a semblance of order had been restored, and the next day some 80 people were detained.

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Even as the authorities announced an inquiry, theories were quickly floated as to the causes of the unrest. Without specifying by whom, Gusmao, Alkatiri and the U.N., which maintains peacekeepers in East Timor, all declared that the students had been provoked to riot. That’s possible. East Timor’s diverse ex-guerrilla groups used to be united in the fight against Indonesia’s military. But now they are falling out over who should run the country and how, not least because many former rebels are jobless and disenfranchised, and feel cheated by the new government. Recent weeks have seen a bomb threat on a Dili hotel, a mob attack on a police station in the eastern town of Baucau, and a brawl between army cadets and policemen. “There was a political group behind this incident,” Alkatiri aide Ricardo Robeiro said of last week’s riots.

But East Timor’s problems go beyond insider intrigues. The biggest burden is the economy, the poorest in Asia. Unemployment is estimated to be between 50% and 65%. According to the U.N., nearly half the population earns less than 55 cents a day. Despite a preponderance of farmers, East Timor still imports rice and other staples. Meanwhile, an offshore oil drilling agreement with Australia is bogged down in negotiations. Riots are the last thing a nation desperate for foreign investment needs. “If you burn people’s houses and steal their possessions,” said Gusmao in a national radio broadcast, “they will leave. Then we will be alone with our poverty, without help, forgotten.”

Another issue is the state of the government. Many officials are either former rebel fighters with no experience building a stable society, or members of East Timor’s Elite. Prime Minister Alkatiriwho led the effort to make Portuguese the national language even though only a fraction of Timorese speak itbelongs to this class, and his ministers have come under attack from less privileged compatriots who think their lifestyle too lavish. A few days before the riots, Gusmao himself launched a withering attack on the administration, calling it incompetent and uncaring. “We cannot justify our situation simply because we are a new government,” he told TIME. “We must be more responsible, and show people we are doing something.”

Many East Timorese are now calling for Gusmao to play a bigger part in government beyond his largely ceremonial role as President. At the very least, his character is above reproach. A realist, Gusmao also recognized earlier than most that independence would be no picnic. During the May celebrations, he warned people not to get carried away, telling them patience would be needed. If last week’s unrest is any indicator, East Timorese are already running out of it.