“…what i want is the deadliest weapon — it is truth.” (Fish: Vigil)

I got a message originating from the East Timor Studies mailing list. According to it, the situation in Dili is not as peaceful as the Government would want us to know.

According to the government version, only 5 people have died, and 75 wounded. According to the petitioners/demonstrators version, 67 people have been killed by, possibly a hundred. In my previous e-mail, I only reported the 8,000 IDPs in Don Bosco, who refuse to go home despite a press release from Ramos-Horta that everything is now “normal, and under control.” On the contrary. A UN Adviser to the government called me yesterday saying that things are exactly the opposite: nothing is “under control”. Civil servants have stopped going to work — they have all fled to the districts to seek refuge. Only the international advisers are still going to their offices. So how could things be “under control” if offices are empty? Dili is very quiet — it is almost empty of population. Restaurants are telling their clients to hurry up eating, they want to close early at night.

I remind you that the people of Timor-Leste have suffered through nearly a quarter-century of violent occupation, so it’s understandable that they want to flee possible violence. I also must add that UN advisers won’t show up at work if doing so is a threat to their own safety. I’ve been one, and that’s one thing they tell us. You aren’t good for anyone if you’re dead.

Still, i am puzzled by the obious conflict between the Official Word and the Alternative Information. What is really happening?