Over 100
Houses, Vehicles Destroyed in East Timor Mob Rampage
* From: AAP
* August 15, 2011 10:41PM
ANGRY mobs of martial arts gang members set fire to dozens of
homes as they rampaged through an East Timorese town after one of
their number was killed in a stabbing, police said.
More than 100 houses as well as vehicles caught fire in the unrest
in Zumalai, on East Timor's southern coast on Monday, a police
officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said the violence was "triggered" by the stabbing of a gang
member, who was also a police intelligence agent, in the town
yesterday.
"Three people are now in police custody. The security condition
there is now under control," the police source said.
A military source who also refused to be identified confirmed the
circumstances of the unrest.
Martial arts gangs are common in East Timor, a tiny half-island
state which achieved independence from Indonesia in 2002 following
a bloody referendum.
United Nations police returned full control of East Timor to the
national force in March, more than four years after clashes
between rival factions of the security forces threatened to push
the country into civil war.
The UN will maintain a presence of up to 1,280 police to support
local police until after a presidential election in 2012, when the
UN peacekeeping mission plans to withdraw from the southeast Asian
state.