15 March 2001 -- The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today stressed that communities - leaders, families and the church - had the fundamental responsibility to "keep the people together" without resorting to violence.
"The United Nations Civilian Police, Peacekeeping Force and Rapid Response Unit are here to keep law and order and security, but without the help of the communities we will not be able to keep a durable peace in East Timor," said UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello today in Viqueque, a district plagued recently by violence. "The United Nations cannot do it alone."
On 12 March a teenager from Makadiki died after a fight between youth groups. A subsequent riot resulted in the death of one person and the burning of almost 40 houses and the dislocation of 600 people, the UN mission said. UNTAET said that its Civilian Police would deploy ten more police officers very soon and that a new Rapid Response Unit team of 30 Portuguese officers had been deployed today to reinforce the Jordanian unit sent from Baucau district on Monday.
Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello was accompanied by National Council President Xanana Gusmão and East Timor Defence Force Commander Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak, who will stay overnight for further meetings with community leaders from Makadiki and Boromatan, the villages involved in the clashes.
Before Viqueque, Mr. Vieira de Mello visited Baucau district, the site of a series of violent incidents on 7 March, including the burning of the local mosque and an attack against the District Administrator and other UN staff. He said that UNTAET would fund the reconstruction of the mosque and stressed that the attack was not a majority-against-minority type of violence.
"The Transitional Administration will do its best to fight any efforts, regardless of where they are coming from, to destabilize the democratic process," he said, adding that the recent incidents in both districts were a reminder that "violence doesn't belong to the past, it is part of the present."
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