East Timor prosecutors ordered the arrest of the former interior minister yesterday for allegedly supplying weapons to a hit squad tasked with eliminating the prime minister's political opponents, a UN official said.
International troops, meanwhile, tightened security across the capital as hundreds of protesters gathered to demand Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's ouster, some handing out fliers calling him a terrorist and a murderer.
"If we are not confident in him to administer this government, it is our obligation to call on him to step down," Augusto Junior Tidade of the National Youth Forum told the crowd of mostly young men, who responded with chants of "Step down! Step down!"
Bloodshed
Many East Timorese blame recent bloodshed in Dili on Alkatiri's decision to fire 600 soldiers in March -- unleashing clashes and gang warfare -- and some allege that he formed a hit squad to kill his political opponents, a charge he vehemently denies.
But the decision by the country's top prosecutor to issue a warrant for former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato's arrest yesterday added credibility to the controversial claims.
The indictment accused Lobato -- who resigned on June 1 -- of giving rebel leader Vincente "Railos" da Concecao guns on at least three occasions last month so he could organize an armed group aimed at altering East Timor's democratic state and rule of law, the UN official said.
The official, who saw a copy of the document, was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Protest organizers said yesterday they would keep pressure on Alkatiri to step down, and predicted that some 30,000 people could turn out for anti-government demonstrations in the next few days.
Fearing unrest, Australian troops brandishing automatic weapons patrolled the perimeter of the palace in downtown Dili, while others stopped light traffic to search vehicles for weapons.
Convoys of armored personnel carries rattled through the streets.
"Mari Alkatiri came to power because of the people, so it is our right to take back that power," Nino Pereira, a popular singer and lecturer at the National University, said after addressing the crowd. "This is people power."
Some handed out fliers linking Alkatiri, a Muslim in this deeply Roman Catholic country and a descendent of Yemeni immigrants, with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"We hate Mari Alkatiri. He is [a] descendent of bin Laden and he is [a] terrorist and Communist," the flier said, also describing him as a "murderer" and "not pure Timorese."
Criticism
Alkatiri has come under criticism over his handling of the worst violence to envelop his fledgling nation since its bloody break for independence from Indonesia in 1999, when revenge-seeking militias went on a deadly rampage.
His dismissal of more than 40 percent of the country's 1,400-strong armed forces triggered clashes with loyalist forces that gave way to machete-wielding youths torching houses and looting government buildings.
At least 30 people have been killed since late April, and nearly 150,000 others have fled their homes, though the violence has eased in recent weeks with the arrival of a 2,700-strong Australian-led multinational force.
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