EAST TIMOR: A UN-led police force will be deployed in East Timor for at least two years to help restore stability to one of the world's youngest nations, the country's foreign minister said today.
José Ramos-Horta, who is also the defence minister, said the United Nations was expected to debate the composition of the force next week and that it could be dispatched within three months.
East Timor's government dismissed 600 striking soldiers in March, triggering clashes with loyalist forces that gave way to gang warfare that has left at least 30 people dead in the last month, despite the presence of foreign troops.
Machete-wielding gangs have torched and looted homes in the worst wave of unrest since East Timor's bloody break for independence from Indonesian rule in 1999, when retaliatory militia groups devastated much of the territory.
Mr Ramos-Horta said that the United Nations would lead an official inquiry into several aspects of the latest killings: an April 28th attack on protesters in the capital, a May 25th shooting by soldiers on unarmed police, and a deadly siege on the home of the country's former interior minister.