EAST TIMOR: A major political crisis in the world's youngest independent nation appeared to ease yesterday when East Timor's Nobel Peace Prize-winning foreign minister was given additional charge of the country's fractured armed forces.
The appointment of José Ramos-Horta, who shared the 1996 peace prize with countryman Bishop Carlos Belo, comes after nearly 10 days of arson and looting by gangs loosely allied to factions in Timor's army and police force.
There were isolated clashes between the gangs overnight and early yesterday, but nothing like the pitched battles that a 2,500-strong Australian-led peacekeeping force has tried to quell since it started arriving last week.
Thousands of residents of the capital are still camped out in church grounds and public parks, too frightened to return to their homes while gangs roam the suburbs. But with foreign troops stepping up patrols, President Xanana Gusmao has urged a return to normalcy.
Mr Ramos-Horta's appointment comes a day after the resignations of defence minister Roque Rodriguez and interior minister Rogerio Lobato.
The two had been effectively sidelined on Tuesday when Mr Gusmao assumed some emergency powers and said he was taking control of their portfolios.
Mr Gusmao stopped short of sacking his prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, seen by many as the architect of the biggest political crisis to hit the country since it became independent of Indonesia in 2002.
But Mr Alkatiri remains deeply unpopular among ordinary Timorese.
The leader of a group of rebel soldiers says he will not surrender unless the prime minister resigns.