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December 03, 2002

EAST Timorese security forces have fired tear gas to disperse about 500 high 
school students protesting at the arrest of one their peers, witnesses said.

The protesters set two motorcycles on fire in a soccer field near Dili's 
parliament building before police and soldiers fired off several rounds of tear 
gas.

There were no reports of injuries.

Protesters said they wanted to see legislators to complain about the arrest of 
a student from a school in the capital, Dili, earlier today. They said boy was 
suspected of gang violence.

Police were not immediately available for comment. 

East Timor became the world's newest nation in May after two years of UN 
administration following 24 years of violent Indonesian occupation. 
-- The Associated Press
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
East Timor soldier held in Indonesia after illegal border crossing
Jakarta December 3, 2002 (AFP)

An East Timorese soldier was being questioned by Indonesian military police 
Tuesday after he crossed the border illegally, the Indonesian armed forces said.

Troops arrested the soldier, Germano Lete Perreira, on Monday evening at a camp 
for East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor after residents there 
recognized and reported him, said Lieutenant Colonel Tjuk Agus Minahasa.

Perreira said he was on holiday and wanted to visit relatives in the camp but 
it was unclear why he crossed the border illegally, Minahasa told AFP from the 
border town of Atambua.

"That's why he was arrested," he said. "We are asking for an explanation."

Minahasa could not confirm a report by the state news agency Antara, that 
Perreira had been asking the whereabouts of human rights violators from East 
Timor.

Minahasa said the Indonesian military would co-ordinate with United Nations 
peacekeeping troops who secure the other side of the border.

Brigadier General Justin Kelly, deputy commander of the UN force, said they had 
not yet been notified of Perreira's detention.

He said that if Perreira had crossed the border illegally he would be handed 
back to the peacekeepers who would turn him over to East Timorese police for 
investigation.

Kelly said the East Timor Defence Force does not yet have any role along the 
border and if Perreira had been asking questions about human rights 
violators "that would not have been an official task."

UN peacekeepers remain in East Timor to support the fledgling army.

International peacekeepers arrived in September 1999 to end a military-backed 
militia orgy of destruction, murder, looting and forced deportation in reaction 
to East Timor's vote to separate from Indonesia.