Today, East Timor's governing political party, Fretilin will be holding a congress till 19th May. Fretilin's secretary-general, Mari Alkatiri, who is also the Prime Minister of East Timor is challenged by Jose Luis Guterres, the Ambassador to the US and UN, for the position. The Secretary of State for Region III, Egidio de Jesus, is challenging current Fretilin President, Francisco ‘Lu’Olo’ Guterres for his position. There are rumours that should PM Mari Alkatiri be re-elected as secretary general of Fretilin, there will be trouble again as the petitioning ex-soldiers do not like him and may caused trouble on 20th May, East Timor's Independence Day. If you have followed the situation in Timor up till now, you can't help but wonder whether the case of the sacked ex-soldiers is part of the whole political game.
Why do I think so?
1. It is strange that the soldiers from the west side of the country took that long(East Timor has been independent since 2002) to staged a protest of discrimination.
2. Although an establishment of a commission of investigation was agreed on 27th May, the demonstration went out of control the next day where the riot started.
3. The news said 5 were killed. The leader of the protesters, Salsinha said that 60 of his people were missing. Some locals said more than 50 were gunned down at Tasitolu and their bodies thrown into containers. The 60 people are still missing. Were they gunned down? It was the PM who gave the military the go-ahead to open fire if necessary. Was his decision based on controlling the situation or silencing troublemakers?
4. Rumours of US providing weapons or backing the protesters. The US ambassador to Timor has denied the allegations. The person contesting PM Mari Alkatiri is East Timor's Ambassador to the US and he has used this latest incident to discredit the PM. What if the rumours are true? Could the US be backing the challenger AND the protesters?
5. Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak, commander-in-chief of the army, said this to the protesters,"If you want war, we are ready for it". This was way before the demonstration took place. During the demonstration, the protesting ex-soldiers demanded an explanation of this remark. Was there something that Taur Matan Ruak knew which the ex-soldiers didn't know? Was he informed of a possible coup or 'war' and hence making the remark?
6. Australia sent 4 warships to their northen borders in the sea, just outside of East Timor. Do you need warships to crush riots? I don't think so.
So much for my conspiracy theory. Most sources of information from UNMISET Media Monitoring, a website with news from the various national news sources of East Timor and sometimes including ABC news network from Australia.
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