Australia strengthens East Timor force with police
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-28 10:49 Australia will send up to 50 federal police
officers to help contain marauding gangs in East Timor's troubled capital, the
defense minister said Sunday.
Australian peace
keeping troops collect machetes and other hand weapons from detain
militiamen allied to feuding branches of Timor's army or police in the
East Timor capital of Dili May 27,
2006.[Reuters] |
Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said the officers would likely be dispatched
within the next 24 hours to help quell rising lawlessness on the streets of
Dili.
The police reinforcements will join 15 officers already in the capital, he
said.
Nelson said the presence of Australian troops, helicopters and armored
personnel carriers on the troubled island had so far helped to ease tensions
between East Timor's military and rebel factions.
"We've seen an immediate calming in terms of the rogue military elements and
the police in the most savage way fighting with one another," Nelson told
Australia's Network Ten television Sunday. "What's now emerging is a basic sense
of lawlessness with these marauding young gangs."
Around 2,000 Australian troops were either on the ground or in transit to
East Timor, the defense department said in a statement Sunday. Seven ships and
four Black Hawk helicopters were also assisting the deployment, the department
said.
Prime Minister John Howard said the full contingent of Australian troops
would be on the ground in East Timor Sunday, but warned that stabilizing the
country was a complicated operation that could take some time.
"It has begun to quiet things down, it's a trickier operation than some
people think," Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday. "Nobody
should assume that it's just a simple walk-in-the-park military operation _ it's
quite challenging."
Howard has refused to set a timeline on how long Australian troops might
remain in East Timor, but New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said Saturday
foreign forces may need to remain on the island for up to a year.
Australian troops have evacuated 276 Australians and other foreign nationals
from East Timor since the fighting began, the defense department said.
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