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Ex-PM's backers flood Dili

Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor prime minister Mari Alkatiri descended on the capital yesterday as the president hinted he could take matters in his hands and decide on a replacement until elections were held.

Around 4,000 supporters of the ruling Fretilin party, traveling in a convoy of trucks, buses, cars and motorbikes came to Dili from Hera, about 16km away, under escort by international peacekeepers.

Alkatiri quit on Monday after weeks of protests by thousands of demonstrators who left the capital on Wednesday, clearing the way for his party supporters to enter the city in a convoy of over 150 vehicles.

The protesters, mostly youths and young men, were in good spirits, chanting "Viva Alkatiri" and "Viva Fretilin," after the vehicles had made their way along a narrow, potholed road that clings to hills that ring the island's northern coastline.

At the head of the convoy, a man carried a giant dead fruit bat. On its canvas-like wings, stretched kite-like across a wooden frame, the same slogans were painted.

On the way to Dili, New Zealand and Australian troops had set up a huge search operation in a dry paddy field, painstakingly checking everyone for weapons.

Residents lined the road as the Alkatiri supporters passed. Some of them seemed nervous, and a few youths threw stones at the convoy.

Residents and foreign peacekeepers had feared the pro- and anti-Alkatiri protesters would meet and turn the sleepy seaside capital into a battleground.

Fretilin holds 55 of parliament's 88 seats. According to the Constitution it has the right to nominate the next prime minister, and it is keen to retain the premiership.

But diplomats think President Xanana Gusmao wants a non-Fretilin premier to rule until elections next year.

In a statement released yesterday, he hinted that unless there was a suitable nomination from the State Council -- an appointed advisory panel that serves as a conduit between him and parliament -- he would make the choice himself.

"I am conscious that the current crisis can only be completely overcome through free elections to be held as soon as possible," he said.

"In the meantime, the country needs to be governed with efficiency and justice, in compliance with the Constitution, until the conditions to set the date for the elections and to call the people to decide are created."

In Australia, Canberra yesterday denied charges that it was involved in ousting Alkatiri.

"It's absolutely false that Australia has intervened in any way in the political line-up in East Timor," said Treasurer Peter Costello.

"[Australian] troops are there at the invitation of the president and the then prime minister Mr Alkatiri, so they were asked to be there," Costello told commercial television.

"To claim that they've engaged in domestic politics is absolutely false and I can say that for a fact," he said.
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