By day Borgas is at college, studying public administration, but after hours he is a member of the PSHT. "See the old fence over there? That is their territory, and the other boundary is the dirt road over here," says Lucio Borgas, signalling the stamping grounds of his enemies, the 7-7 gang, who are fighting for control of the Bairo Pite district. TO view Dili therough a gang member's eyes is like looking through night-vision goggles: suddenly you see the invisible markers and boundaries that etch out each gang's territory. Australian-based gang expert James Scambary, who compiled a Who's Who of the groups for AusAID in 2006, says many were originally established as a form of resistance to Indonesian rule others were set up by the Indonesian military as a means to impose order. Formed during Portuguese and Indonesian occupation, the 15 or so major gangs have an estimated membership of around 90,000 and boast names such as Commando or Korka. AusAID, the Australian Government's overseas aid program, says it is estimated that almost half of East Timor's 1 million people live on less than $US1 a day half are illiterate and more than 40 per cent of young males are unemployed, offering the gangs plenty of recruitment opportunities.Įven on the new construction sites, freshly painted gang signs are daubed - demonic skulls and murals, such as the distinctive four-pointed symbol that designates the PSHT, or Persaudaraan Setia Hati Terate ("Brotherhood of the Faithful Heart of the Lotus Flower"). East Timor is ranked 162nd out of 182 countries in the United Nations' human development index. A three-storey shopping mall is half-built a beachside resort is planned fleets of new government cars hog the streets and on weekends businessmen take the afternoon air in their European convertibles.īut the development picture is misleading. And where once burnt-out buildings lay smothered in weeds, a modern city is emerging. President José Ramos-Horta recently announced East Timor had experienced 14 per cent economic growth in 2009 - among the highest rates in the world.
On the surface, East Timor appears to be undergoing a miraculous transformation, thanks to its oil and gas industries and the government's decision to expend revenue from the nation's $5-billion petroleum fund on infrastructure and other projects. It's a measure of the power and immunity of the gangs, which many believe now pose a significant threat to the nation's security.
The police haven't even bothered to interview him, let alone his attacker - something that has become common in East Timor. To be arrested and go to court."īut official justice may be slow in coming for da Silva. I want the guy who did it - and I know who he is - to face justice. Doubling over with pain, he grabbed the wound and held it to stop the bleeding, then staggered to the main road to get a taxi to hospital.Ī week later, lying on his bed in his small airless bedroom, wincing from the incision which doctors made to remove the dart, he says: "I've told my friends not to get revenge. It speared deep into Jose da Silva's chest, stopping a millimetre from his heart. It is the preferred weapon of Dili's gangs, who often coat them in battery acid. THE lethal projectile was a rama ambon, a 20cm dart with a barbed, razor-sharp tip. Gang violence is threatening to ruin the chance for peace and prosperity in East Timor To date, these rivalries are preserved and carried everywhere, including to various places in Indonesia.Mean streets Rory Callinan From: The Australian Ap12:00AM The roots of these rivalries are varied, which includes economic and trade competition, political affiliations, or historical conflicts.
For example, PSHT is well-known to have conflicts with martial arts groups such as Korka, Kung Fu Master, Kera Sakti, and Taekwondo. Aside from that, there are considerable rivalries between these perguruans. For example, Kmanek Oan Rai Klaran (Korka) is officially affiliated with The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretelin) Persaudaraan Setia Hati Terate (PSHT) allegedly is associated with two main opposition parties, the Partido Democratica (PD) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Seven-Seven (Zeti-Zeti) is believed to be closely linked to Sagrada Familia (Scambary 2006). The violent image might be rooted in the history of several of these groups that have been politicized and allied with opposing political parties and security forces. Although most groups claim to have nonviolent principles, only emphasizing sport or self-discipline, communal violence often is associated with both types of groups.
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