Mobs rampage in East Timor following pick for prime minister

DILI, East Timor -- Hundreds of opposition loyalists torched buildings, attacked U.N. cars and threw rocks at police Tuesday as violence triggered by the appointment of a new prime minister spread beyond the capital, police and witnesses said. At least six people were wounded.

Security forces fired tear gas to contain the mobs, who also set up roadblocks of burning tires. The clashes threaten the fragile peace that took hold after the collapse of tiny, impoverished East Timor's government a year ago.

The United Nations, which has been overseeing security since last year's spasm, described the country as "volatile" and "tense," but said the situation was under control.

Authorities had been expecting violence after the announcement Monday that President Jose Ramos-Horta would break a political logjam by handing the prime ministerial post to Xanana Gusmao, who had served as the country's first president.

The former ruling party, Fretilin, won 21 seats in the 65-member Parliament in June elections, well short of a majority, but insisted it had the right to form the next government. Gusmao's party won 18, but formed a coalition that now has 37 seats.

Fretilin called the decision illegal and vowed to have it overturned in court. An appeal for supporters to remain calm appeared to go unheeded.

Gangs rampaged in the capital, Dili, but the worst violence was in Baucau 80 miles to the east, where buildings housing the offices of international aid groups and government agencies were set ablaze, said police inspector Pedro Belo. A market also was looted.

In Viqueque, another Fretilin stronghold to the south, two houses and a minibus were reported to have been set on fire, a security statement said.

Six people were wounded, including a young boy, said Liborio da Costa Alves, a hospital doctor.

East Timor broke free from decades of Indonesian rule in 1999 in a U.N.-sponsored referendum. Three years later it became Asia's newest nation, but the euphoria quickly evaporated amid the challenges of governing a divided, impoverished people.

Last year, a military mutiny sparked clashes between rival troops that led to gang violence, arson and looting. More than 35 people were killed and some 150,000 others fled their homes before the collapse of the government and the deployment of foreign peacekeepers.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, faces major security, humanitarian and economic challenges. It has significant offshore oil and gas reserves, but unemployment in the nation of less than 1 million people hovers at around 50 percent.