Inquiry Launched Into East Timor Unrest

East Timor's discredited government yesterday agreed to a United Nations-led investigation into weeks of communal violence that has plunged the fledgling nation into chaos.

Ministers also formally called for a UN police force to be sent to the country as soon as possible, predicting that it may have to stay for up to two years. The deployment, which would probably take weeks to organise, would see the UN return to a nation it left only a year ago, believing that it had developed sufficiently to survive alone.

The inquiry will look at the causes of the unrest, particularly the disintegration of the security forces when 600 of its 1,400 members were fired after going on strike, alleging discrimination.

José Ramos Horta, the defence and foreign minister, said it would also focus on three key incidents: an attack on demonstrators in the capital, Dili, on April 28, in which five people were killed; the shooting dead of 10 unarmed police officers after they had surrendered to the UN; and the deaths of six women and children in a house set on fire by a mob.

At least 30 people have been killed in the fighting and about 100,000 have fled their homes.

Many East Timorese are blaming the prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, for the unrest, but he supports the investigation, the UN's senior official in the country, Sukehiro Hasegawa, said yesterday.

"He's very transparent - he insists that the truth should be known about what happened and he is agreeable to the investigations to be carried out with the participation of the international investigators and prosecutors," Mr Hasegawa said.

Mr Ramos Horta said the police force, which numbered 3,000 before the crisis, had "basically disintegrated".

There are about 2,300 Australian-led peacekeepers in East Timor, but it will be up to the UN security council to determine how large an international police force should be.

The security council is expected to discuss the crisis next week.