East Timor's president appealed for calm between ethnic gangs yesterday as international troops said they had succeeded in disarming the fighters who were pushing the tiny country into chaos.
President Xanana Gusmao emerged from discussions with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to urge restraint between rivals from the east and west, who have battled in the streets using everything from bows and arrows to machetes.
"If you trust me, please, western and eastern, embrace each other in your home. Be calm and help others to be calm," Gusmao told crowds outside the presidential palace.
PHOTO: AFP
"Don't take up your swords. Don't burn houses, don't make violence. We promise to make national unity so things will come back to normal again," he said. "I promise you it will be back to normal."
Ethnic mobs have clashed in the streets, burning down homes and businesses and raising fears that the east-west rivalry could end in an all-out conflict just four years after independence.
The violence quickly spread from a military rebellion which began when almost half the 1,400-strong army were sacked for going on strike after claiming discrimination against soldiers from the west of the country.
Alkatiri had hinted that the president was trying to use the bloodshed to push him out of office and hundreds of people gathered outside while he met Gusmao, demanding his resignation.
"Alkatiri is a terrorist! We will kill him! Viva Gusmao!" the protesters chanted.
Many here have blamed Alkatiri for allowing the situation to deteriorate. Gusmao said the government talks would resume today.
The director of central Dili's Guido Valadares Hospital, Antonio Caleres, said 20 people had died since the violence flared on May 23 but that no one had been killed since Saturday.
Australian Brigadier Mick Slater, head of the multinational force of about 2,250 troops sent in to restore order, said it had succeeded in disarming the gangs as well as police officers who had sided with the rebel Timorese troops.
"There's been no gunfights on the outskirts of town since Sunday afternoon. People are out on the streets, there's a lot more traffic about -- we're starting to see good signs," Slater said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS