More international police will soon be sent to East Timor to restore order following recent deadly violence, an Australian minister said yesterday.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison said the plan was for a "multinational approach to policing" that would "involve a number of countries and this could well expand."
"In a week's time we would be seeing a number of police coming into East Timor," Ellison told reporters after meeting East Timor's Interior Minister Alcino Barris.
He said Malaysia will send another 250 police to the troubled country, in addition to 250 already sent, but did not specify how many more police other nations will provide.
"We discussed a joint policing headquarters," Ellison said, stressing that it had the backing of the UN and will eventually be led by Australian Federal Police who are now on the ground here.
He said a joint working group has been set up to pave the way for a gradual shift "from a military style of operation" to one that is police-led.
"As police numbers grow, military numbers could recede in time," Ellison said.
Australia's federal police chief Mick Keelty said that while there has been no fresh wave of violence, the situation remained "tense" with thousands of firearms from the local police and military barracks now in the hands of civilians.
"The situation can change very quickly ... we wouldn't want to anticipate the early withdrawal" of foreign peacekeepers, Keelty said.
He said the local police force has failed to prevent the spread of violence and it was crucial it be revamped.
Asked how many weapons could be in the hands of civilians, Keelty said: "They are in the thousands. You are talking of a tradition here of bearing arms and it's a different prospect of what we've faced in other places."
Ellison said authorities were assessing the exact number of guns in civilian hands, but stressed disarming the militia groups was of "high priority."
More than 2,200 troops or police from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal are already here. Some 200 Australian federal police have also been sent and more are set to come, Ellison said.
The mainly Catholic nation was plunged into civil unrest when Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in March sacked 600 soldiers, nearly half the tiny nation's armed forces, after they deserted their barracks complaining of discrimination.
Since then, attacks by rival gangs and other violence have left at least 21 dead while around 130,000 people fled their homes in fear.
Renegade forces led by Major Alfredo Reinado surrendered their weapons to Australian troops on Friday.
Ellison said the priority now was to seize weapons which had fallen into the hands of civilians.
"Of course that has been the feature of violence that we have seen recently. The priority for our people on the ground here is to seize, to take out of circulation any weapons which are illegally held," he said.
Meanwhile, East Timor's foreign minister said on Sunday he may visit a former resistance fighter to retrieve guns and discuss his claims that he recently headed a hit squad, formed on the orders of the crisis-hit country's prime minister.
Vincente "Railos" da Concecao claimed in an interview with an Australian TV station earlier this month that the prime minister recruited and armed his men in May, and told him to kill Alkatiri's enemies, including some 600 soldiers he had fired.
Alkatiri has denied the allegations -- which have underscored the murky political backdrop to the crisis facing the fledgling nation -- saying they were part of a smear campaign against him by enemies wanting to oust him.
The allegations have added to the pressure facing the prime minister, and if Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta were to meet with de Conceacao, it could lend his claims some credibility.
Ramos-Horta said he was considering visiting da Concecao today at his mountain camp near the town of Liquisa to persuade him to give up his weapons and discuss the allegations against Alkatiri, who heads the nation's largest political party.
"I might. I'm not so sure yet," Ramos-Horta told reporters. "What is important is that ... we try to collect the weapons ... and then move to the next step and find out who gave the weapons to them."
President Xanana Gusmao, who led East Timor's resistance to Indonesia's brutal rule until it won independence in 1999, might launch his own inquiry into the alleged Alkatiri hit squad, said Ramos-Horta, a close ally of Gusmao.
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