Fretilin's secretary-general, former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, had hinted at the risks to East Timor's stability should his party not be invited into government, and his supporters did their best last night to make his warning come true.
Within minutes of yesterday's announcement that former resistance fighter Xanana Gusmão was to become the country's new prime minister at the head of a non-Fretilin coalition, angry easterners, Fretilin activists from the refugee camps dotted around Dili, poured into the streets. They set up barricades of tires, stones and bushes wherever roads bordered their camps, and from behind them launched rock attacks on passing cars — UN police vehicles their preferred target.
In the grounds of Dili hospital, in the city's east, the easterners have been living in tents pitched in the grassy courtyards between wards. Groups emerged to taunt westerners living nearby. As the shouting turned into violence, UN police, New Zealand soldiers and Portuguese Republican National Guard (GNR) with riot gear and bullet-proof vests raced with sirens blaring to the streets around the hospital. They fired tear gas to disperse rock-throwing youths, but within minutes the mob had melted back into the maze of alleys and paths between the district's tiny shacks and stalls.
Expat Australian Jim Clifford, owner of a pizza shop, was making deliveries in the area on a motorbike. "I drove right through the middle of it. They were fighting at every intersection," he says. "The locals were angry. They've had enough. When the police came they were telling them to just shoot them [the easterners]. We've stopped delivering pizzas now. It's too dangerous."
On the main road that leads out of the city to the west, dozens of vehicles were bombarded. NGO boss Christopher Samson was driving past when he was hit. "I saw them and I heard them call out: 'That's him, that's him, throw!' They were after me. Bam! Bam! They got the driver's side window. It was terrifying. Never in 2006 when there was trouble did anybody throw stones at me, but this was a decision that they wanted to threaten me." The violence was continuing in suburbs near the airport where his house is located. "I'm worried that they can keep this going," he says.
At Quintan Bot, a suburb in the city's south-west, it was TIME's turn to be attacked, driving down a street which houses easterners on one side and westerners on the other. The projectile-littered road has been an on-off battleground for two gangs for the past few days. Out of the darkness from the pro-Fretilin side a large rock hammered into the door. As TIME's car sped out into the safety of the intersection, vanloads of GNR troops charged the other way in an effort to catch those responsible. Further down the street 17-year-old Vasco Alinta was one of the victims. "I was standing near my grandmother's house up the road when they came running," he says from his bed, a large bandage on his ankle. "They had a slingshot and they let it go and the rock hit me. I wasn't provoking them."
Police attempts to calm the easterners gathering in small groups were of limited success. "Don't block the road any more," commanded one UN officer through his interpreter. The youths responded with jeers. "We will block it when you go," one yelled. "We will do this until Fretilin is in government."
UN spokeswoman Alison Cooper says there have been arrests, but the authorities are maintaining control. "The situation is volatile, but the incidents of violence are sporadic and isolated and able to be contained," she says, despite just having a rock smash through the front window of her UN car. The UN registered 31 incidents including arsons, rock-throwing and roadblocks over a 10-hour period from 8pm on Monday to 6am on Tuesday, but had no reports of casualties. The worst arson attack torched the Customs office last night; a second Customs building was set on fire early today.
UN Head of Mission Atul Khare has met with Alkatiri to discuss the situation. Cooper says the Fretilin leader had received delegations from the refugee camps and "reminded them during the meeting that burning buildings and throwing rocks is unacceptable." Meanwhile, Alkatiri has declared Gusmão's appointment an "illegal decision," and says his party will not cooperate with the government. Fretilin is believed to be planning a peaceful demonstration in the coming days.