A nation caught under the barrel - Timor/Arms
Paul Toohey; 1/3/08
How do three or four generations of East Timorese who have grown up knowing violence take another path? At this time, the question is the same as the answer: with more violence or the promise of it. In Dili, the capital, the symbol of peace is the gun. Young children on their daily rounds routinely see hundreds of men - their own people or those wearing the uniforms of different nations - standing on street corners, or on patrol, or guarding important people, with automatic weapons at the ready. They are learning the same lessons as their parents and grandparents. East Timor is riddled with all forms of weaponry, the kind held by legitimate forces and the clandestine. In Timor, the AK47, the FN and the Steyr automatic rifles form the coalition ruling party, along with the big, white, crowd-controlling, water-blasting monster with UN markings that has been prowling the streets of Dili.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23297722-25837,00.html