Timor capital calm after Gusmao takes charge

East Timor's capital was calm for the first time in more than a week today as residents welcomed news that independence hero …

East Timor's capital was calm for the first time in more than a week today as residents welcomed news that independence hero President Xanana Gusmao had assumed sole responsibility for the country's security.

Mr Gusmao's proclamation yesterday appeared to quell the violence by gangs of youths who have been on a rampage of looting and arson sparked by the dismissal of nearly half the army.

President Xanana Gusmao
President Xanana Gusmao

There were a few isolated incidents, but hundreds of the estimated 30,000 people who fled their homes to seek shelter in churches and school began returning home.

Mr Gusmao said he was taking sole responsibility for the tiny nation's armed forces and would also be in charge of coordinating with the 2,500-strong Australian-led international peacekeeping force that East Timor asked for last week to restore order.

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His move - assuming emergency powers without declaring a formal state of emergency - is seen as further isolating Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, whose handling of the affair has been heavily criticised both in Timor and abroad.

But Mr Alkatiri added confusion to Timor's already complex political situation today by insisting he was still in charge.

"You are wrong, completely wrong, he (Gusmao) is not taking control," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"The defence and security is still part of the government, and I am the head of the government," he said, blaming the confusion on a misinterpretation of Mr Gusmao's statement from Portuguese into English.

Mr Gusmao is seen as man of the people, an independence hero who fought against Indonesia's colonial rule and who spent years in jail for his beliefs.

Mr Alkatiri, who spent much of his life as an exile in Angola and Mozambique, is seen as far more aloof and lacking Mr Gusmao's liberation pedigree.

Today, a few plumes of smoke rose into the sky above the hill-ringed capital, but nothing like the pall from dozens of torched houses in previous days.