Factions continue to fight with each other in East Timor . The blogger at Diligence, in his post titled Another Bad Day, mentions this incident that took place on Thursday, 25th May
The UN released details of the casualties from an encounter between FDTL soldiers and the police after army soldiers attacked the police headquarters :
“As the unarmed police were being escorted out, army soldiers opened fire on them killing nine and wounding 27 others, including two UN police advisers,” Dujarric said.
This is just after the UN police attached to the local police had brokered a deal to lay down weapons and leave the building.
The wounded police were taken to the UN compound where blogger Tumbleweed was helping out
In the clinic, there was no time to feel fear or sadness. We just tried to see how we could help, with instructions from the (thankfully) many doctors working in the UN system. I put on gloves and tried to clean some wounds, bandage some, and comfort others - holding their hands and talking to them, trying to reassure them. I don't think I was ‘feeling' anything at that moment. NONE of us did, we just did what was necessary.
They managed to save some of the wounded but some were not lucky. Tumbleweed writes
Earlier when the first wounded policeman was carried in with four bullet wounds on his chest, (this was just outside where everyone had gathered), it really was an emotional scene. my tears just kept rolling down, and i kept saying ‘Hail Marys' and ‘Our Fathers' to calm myself down. My heart bled for the women and children who would lose their fathers today. I cried out to the Lord to put sense back into these men's minds. Today is the DAY OF OBLIGATION for the Ascension of the Lord! This is all so wrong.
The police man died.
NO ONE should die this way.
i'm not bothering to say what actually happened today cos even if i do, it doesn't make sense. war fare makes no sense. We should simply ban guns around the world.
Pray for peace my friends, if you're reading
Send this by E-mail
Salam Adil104 posts 
Nermeen Edrees5 posts 
Nicholas Laughlin151 posts 
John Liebhardt22 posts 
Leonard Chien9 posts 
Razan Ghazzawi12 posts 
Milton Ramirez27 posts 
Luis Carlos Diaz11 posts 
Aparna Ray20 posts 
Renata Avila48 posts 
.hj barraza6 posts
[...] Seven years after the end of Indonesian rule — becoming the newest world nation in May 2002 — and having gone through what was viewed as a successful nation building and independence process led by the UN, East Timor is once again facing deep unrest. The last weeks since the reported clashes of April 28th have shown escalating violence and by now the Lusophone blogosphere is starting to speculate about the real forces behind the recent events. “It was almost one o’clock. I turned on the radio, increased the volume and prepared myself for the bad news of the day. I was listening to the last music before the news and I stopped the car in front of the beach… I was prepared… Here they come! Timor, clashes between police and army, dead people, cries for help… Australia was already arriving (thanks to the oil exploration contracts)… Portugal is on the way … ENI is also there, entering through GALP. I can’t help thinking that the oil is the real trouble maker, even if this is not the exact case here. That’s what I think.” News - A day after… [...]