Mob rule

last updated 8 January 2015

Dili, East Timor

Mobs set fire to government buildings and foreign aid offices in Dili this week to protest the appointment of Xanana Gusmao as prime minister. President Jose Ramos-Horta appointed Gusmao, a hero of the Timorese resistance to Indonesian rule, to break a political stalemate after June’s parliamentary elections gave no single party a majority. Gusmao’s party got just 18 of the 65 seats, but he formed a coalition with another party to eke out a majority of 37. But the former ruling party, Fretilin, insisted that it should lead the government because it got 21 seats, and Fretilin supporters took to the streets. East Timor has been wracked by instability since it voted for independence in 1999.