Activist saddened by eruption of violence in East Timor

Tom Hyland, the bus driver turned human rights activist who campaigned for East Timor's independence, has said he is shocked and saddened by the violence which has erupted in Asia's poorest state.

But Mr Hyland, who lives in East Timor for 10 months of the year, said he wasn't disillusioned and that the country would overcome its problems.

Nobel laureate and East Timorese foreign affairs minister, José Ramos-Horta, was due to speak at the Department of Foreign Affairs forum on human rights on Saturday but was unable to travel due to the conflict. Yesterday, he resigned.

Speaking in his place, Mr Hyland admitted that he and many others had missed the warning signs that preceded the violence in East Timor. The lives of ordinary Timorese had not improved since independencein 2002 and there were allegations of human rights abuses by the police. The dismissal of one-third of the country's 1,800 soldiers proved the trigger for the violence which flared on the streets of the capital, Dili, in April. Over 30 people were killed and 150,000 people driven from their homes, among them the family with whom Mr Hyland stays when working as an English language teacher at the foreign affairs ministry.

Mr Hyland was not caught up in the violence. He said it was easy to forget that East Timor was still in deep trauma as a result of its colonial past and the killing of one-third of its population while under occupation by Indonesia. "People who had fought the good struggle and won were now unemployed and they took to the streets." The UN, which ended its mission after three years, had left too soon, he added.

Mr Hyland denied that the street demonstrations were anti-government, and said they were directed against prime minister Mari Alkatiri. Mr Ramos-Horta remained very popular. The violence has subsided since the arrival of a 2,500 Australian-led multinational peacekeeping force.