Latest / History Dark / Inside East Timor_s Deadly Gang Wars _ Ross Kemp on Gangs
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: East Timor is one of the most volatile places on Earth,
- 0:05Speaker 1: where martial arts, gang life and ritualistic beliefs make a
- 0:10Speaker 1: combustible cocktail.
- 0:11Speaker 2: I think we should go.
- 0:12Speaker 1: And violence has become a way of life.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Move a little bit, then I'll stab you.
- 0:17Speaker 3: You'll stab him, yeah?
- 0:19Speaker 4: Did he die, though?
- 0:20Speaker 3: That's what they say.
- 1:15Speaker 1: This country has all the ingredients of a top tourist destination.
- 1:19Speaker 1: White sand beaches, azure blue seas, and a tropical climate
- 1:24Speaker 1: to match.
- 1:25Speaker 4: However, there's trouble in paradise.
- 1:28Speaker 1: A fifth of the population are said to be gang members,
- 1:31Speaker 1: and violence is endemic. This highly religious tribal culture has
- 1:37Speaker 1: a gang problem like no other I've encountered on my travels. Oh, oh, oh, oh!
- 2:00Speaker 1: There are hundreds of burnt out buildings like this in
- 2:02Speaker 1: East Timor, arson being one of the weapons used by
- 2:05Speaker 1: the gangs, along with bows and arrows, poison darts, and machetes.
- 2:10Speaker 1: And though they may sound medieval, the hospitals and the
- 2:13Speaker 1: cemeteries here bear testament to their effectiveness. There are growing
- 2:17Speaker 1: concerns that the gangs are gaining political influence in this,
- 2:21Speaker 1: the youngest democracy in the world. So I've come here
- 2:24Speaker 1: to find out just how much power they actually wield.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Although it's the capital of East Timor, Dili is little
- 2:35Speaker 1: more than a series of villages. It's scarred by burnt-out
- 2:39Speaker 1: derelict buildings and internally displaced persons camps to house the
- 2:43Speaker 1: victims of violence. Unemployment is running at 70% and so
- 2:49Speaker 1: is gang membership. The streets are full of UN vehicles,
- 2:53Speaker 1: gang graffiti and foreign troops. The situation is so bad
- 2:58Speaker 1: here that the government has had to seek foreign help
- 3:00Speaker 1: in dealing with its problems and the gangs that cause them.
- 3:08Speaker 1: It's my first day and I'm starting my search for
- 3:10Speaker 1: East Timor's gangs by visiting the Australian peacekeepers who have
- 3:15Speaker 1: agreed to show me some of the weapons they've confiscated.
- 3:21Speaker 1: My guide is Major Pete Conroy.
- 3:26Speaker 2: Yes, I mean this is a small collection.
- 3:28Speaker 5: I must point out that we've actually collected a much
- 3:32Speaker 5: larger amount of weapons. In fact, we've collected enough weapons
- 3:36Speaker 5: to fill this entire floor and some. Here's an example
- 3:42Speaker 5: of some knives, I mean very simple knives. This was
- 3:46Speaker 5: actually worn by an individual using the straps around his
- 3:48Speaker 5: head and we found him using this as some sort
- 3:52Speaker 5: of sign.
- 3:54Speaker 2: Also, you can pull them from there. It was a
- 3:56Speaker 2: force to be reckoned with.
- 3:57Speaker 4: Certainly.
- 3:59Speaker 6: Here are some classics, the nunchuckers.
- 4:02Speaker 5: It actually folds in with the chain and then simply
- 4:05Speaker 5: screws in. So it just appears, if someone could conceal that,
- 4:11Speaker 5: as a simple pole. Applying weapons for the psychological effect.
- 4:17Speaker 5: has been quite useful for local gang members in intimidating
- 4:21Speaker 5: villagers and other locals in the area.
- 4:23Speaker 4: Of course. Yeah.
- 4:24Speaker 1: These crude homemade weapons are very different from anything I've
- 4:28Speaker 1: ever seen, though they can clearly do serious damage.
- 4:32Speaker 5: And this is your traditional bow and arrow in that
- 4:35Speaker 5: you have wire reinforced with some rubber band to create
- 4:39Speaker 5: the arrow.
- 4:44Speaker 4: Can it hurt? Can it hurt?
- 4:45Speaker 3: It can kill.
- 4:49Speaker 1: I've been told that the best chance of making contact
- 4:51Speaker 1: with the gangs was after dark, so I joined Major
- 4:54Speaker 1: Conroy's section on night patrol.
- 5:08Speaker 7: BIRDS CHIRP.
- 5:21Speaker 4: This is the most violent place in East Timor.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Really?
- 5:26Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:26Speaker 5: This is known as Biro Pitti. And essentially from last
- 5:29Speaker 5: year through to this year, this has been where the.
- 5:34Speaker 4: Majority of the fighting has taken place.
- 5:37Speaker 1: But why is it so violent in this particular place, mate?
- 5:40Speaker 8: Because of the close proximity to gangs. It's really volatile. Like,
- 5:45Speaker 8: it's peaceful now, but all it needs is for a
- 5:49Speaker 8: couple of people to do things wrong. And it'll flare
- 5:52Speaker 8: up again.
- 5:53Speaker 5: Houses burning, people firing darts at each other, rock fights,
- 5:58Speaker 5: you name it, and they're doing it. At this stage,
- 6:02Speaker 5: the generic gangs are 7-7 and PSHT. They are the
- 6:06Speaker 5: two largest gangs.
- 6:08Speaker 4: Why do they dislike each other so much?
- 6:10Speaker 8: From what we can tell, it's just who's got the
- 6:13Speaker 8: control of power, and that's all they're after.
- 6:15Speaker 4: They want power. Yeah. And they'll fight to get it
- 6:18Speaker 4: or kill to get it.
- 6:19Speaker 9: They will.
- 6:25Speaker 4: There's some lads up here, aren't there? Now, will these
- 6:27Speaker 4: guys be gang-affiliated?
- 6:29Speaker 8: Most likely.
- 6:31Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 6:32Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 6:36Speaker 10: Definitely gang.
- 6:37Speaker 8: Can we get them to show us their arms and
- 6:40Speaker 8: see whether they've got any gang tattoos?
- 6:43Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. Now, you're looking for gang tattoos or gang markings,
- 6:47Speaker 4: aren't you guys? That's right.
- 6:48Speaker 5: The 7-7 will have a number of markings on their arms.
- 6:51Speaker 4: Both their forearms and their biceps.
- 6:53Speaker 5: I'll also have them on their chest, and I'll also
- 6:56Speaker 5: have them on their back.
- 6:57Speaker 4: Nothing on his arm.
- 7:00Speaker 1: On this occasion, the Aussies found no obvious sign of
- 7:02Speaker 1: gang membership. But in East Timor, even the unaffiliated have
- 7:07Speaker 1: a gang name, 00.
- 7:08Speaker 8: There's gang members in each village, but they've got a
- 7:13Speaker 8: lot of 00 people who are more persuaded by whichever
- 7:16Speaker 8: gang's in charge of the village.
- 7:18Speaker 11: A lot of them aren't.
- 7:19Speaker 8: Full gang members themselves, but they will fight or else
- 7:23Speaker 8: they will have repercussions to them. Their houses will get
- 7:28Speaker 8: burned down if they say, no, I want nothing to
- 7:29Speaker 8: do with you.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Although the streets felt tense, it seemed to me like
- 7:34Speaker 1: the Australians had the situation under control. But the next morning,
- 7:39Speaker 1: I got a better sense of what the peacekeepers were
- 7:41Speaker 1: up against.
- 7:43Speaker 4: There's a riot going on.
- 7:45Speaker 1: UN forces are being stoned by the locals here. So
- 7:48Speaker 1: we're going to try and get there and find out
- 7:50Speaker 1: exactly what's going on.
- 7:55Speaker 2: A lot of people with guns. They're very happy to
- 7:58Speaker 2: see us.
- 7:59Speaker 1: There's a big police presence here.
- 8:08Speaker 4: They've just arrested a guy.
- 8:09Speaker 1: They've got a guy going in the vehicle just over
- 8:10Speaker 1: to me now. Basically, guys from over here went out
- 8:14Speaker 1: onto the street and started throwing rocks at a UN
- 8:17Speaker 1: police vehicle. They obviously retreated, then called for backup. When
- 8:22Speaker 1: the backup turned up, they've retreated over to there. They've
- 8:24Speaker 1: stopped throwing rocks. So at the moment, it's a bit
- 8:26Speaker 1: of a standoff. The incident gave me an insight into
- 8:31Speaker 1: life here. But to really understand East Timor and why
- 8:35Speaker 1: there are foreign peacekeepers on the streets... you need to
- 8:38Speaker 1: understand its.
- 8:39Speaker 4: History of violence.
- 8:42Speaker 1: The island of Timor lies between two of the region's superpowers,
- 8:46Speaker 1: Indonesia and Australia. While the west is part of Indonesia,
- 8:51Speaker 1: the east was a Portuguese colony for 400 years. But
- 8:57Speaker 1: when the Portuguese left in 1975, the Indonesians invaded, starting
- 9:03Speaker 1: a conflict that lasted 24 years and cost an estimated 250,000
- 9:06Speaker 1: Timorese and 10,000 Indonesian lives. In 1999, a referendum was
- 9:08Speaker 1: finally held and the Timorese voted to kick the Indonesians out.
- 9:23Speaker 1: But the run-up to independence in 2000 was marked by
- 9:26Speaker 1: an orgy of violence that tore the country apart. The
- 9:31Speaker 1: UN is here to assist in the difficult process of nation-building,
- 9:35Speaker 1: for although the Indonesians have gone, East Timor is still
- 9:39Speaker 1: a traumatised country. Violence remains the favoured way of resolving problems,
- 9:45Speaker 1: and the gangs provide the foot soldiers to fight the
- 9:48Speaker 1: resulting conflict. Last year, talks were held to try and
- 9:53Speaker 1: stop the gang violence. Jose Luis Sosa Santos, a former
- 9:58Speaker 1: presidential bodyguard and youth.
- 10:00Speaker 4: worker, was there.
- 10:02Speaker 1: I needed someone to get me closer to PSHT and 7-7,
- 10:06Speaker 1: and Jose was the best option.
- 10:12Speaker 2: Hello?
- 10:21Speaker 4: Thanks for meeting me, mate.
- 10:23Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
- 10:24Speaker 1: I was keen to know about the roots of East
- 10:26Speaker 1: Timor's gang culture.
- 10:28Speaker 12: These Timorese are very proud of the fact that they
- 10:30Speaker 12: come from a warrior culture.
- 10:32Speaker 3: This is.
- 10:33Speaker 12: And if you look throughout the whole history, this is...
- 10:36Speaker 12: It's the one thing that... The one bit of identity
- 10:38Speaker 12: they haven't lost.
- 10:39Speaker 4: Is they're warriors?
- 10:40Speaker 2: They're warriors. You know, that they're a fighting race against
- 10:43Speaker 2: any odds.
- 10:45Speaker 12: And what's happening with the gangs is basically the corruption
- 10:47Speaker 12: of that warrior culture, of all that pride, of all
- 10:49Speaker 12: that honour.
- 10:50Speaker 2: Of all that history.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Well, how organised are the gangs here?
- 10:55Speaker 12: They control the gambling, they control, I suppose, the low-level prostitution,
- 11:00Speaker 12: the racketeering in the markets.
- 11:01Speaker 4: Protection.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Protection rackets.
- 11:03Speaker 12: When you realise, OK, you've got 37,000 militants, PSHT, 31,000 militants, 7-7,
- 11:05Speaker 12: anything between 10,000 and 12,000 militants, when you look at
- 11:08Speaker 12: the numbers.
- 11:09Speaker 2: That starts adding.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Up to being.
- 11:18Speaker 2: Adding up to be more than 10, 15% of the population.
- 11:22Speaker 1: Actively involved in gangs.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Young men in gangs.
- 11:26Speaker 12: Okay, for example, you see the PSHC graffiti of The Heart.
- 11:30Speaker 12: It's an Indonesian martial arts organisation, but it's also present
- 11:32Speaker 12: in England, it's present in.
- 11:34Speaker 4: I've heard of it, man. I've actually been to a
- 11:35Speaker 4: place where they do it.
- 11:36Speaker 3: Penjaksilat, yeah.
- 11:37Speaker 2: Penjaksilat, exactly.
- 11:47Speaker 4: So let me.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Show you this.
- 11:50Speaker 4: There's some graffiti on the wall, yeah?
- 11:52Speaker 2: Yeah, some nice 77 graffiti. It's one of the ritual
- 11:54Speaker 2: art gangs.
- 12:00Speaker 12: In East Timor, especially in regards to ritual art gangs,
- 12:02Speaker 12: you have 77, which are characterised by the seven little
- 12:06Speaker 12: scars up their arms. The leader or the holy man,
- 12:09Speaker 12: the pure master, sort of cuts, makes little cuts and
- 12:13Speaker 12: rubs a special mix of blood of the sacrificed animal
- 12:17Speaker 12: or this dust, this magical dust, which then makes the
- 12:21Speaker 12: gang member, twice the gang member's life force to the gang.
- 12:25Speaker 4: Right.
- 12:26Speaker 12: But also makes them impervious to wounding or to being
- 12:31Speaker 12: shot or, yeah, that's their belief.
- 12:42Speaker 4: Josie, do you think you could.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Try and get me an introduction to some of these guys,
- 12:47Speaker 1: if I.
- 12:47Speaker 4: Can meet them and talk to them.
- 12:48Speaker 2: Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. It shouldn't be a problem.
- 12:51Speaker 12: I mean, if anything, these guys have a lot of
- 12:53Speaker 12: pride in the organisation and the history of the organisation,
- 12:55Speaker 12: so they're... They're willing to talk.
- 12:56Speaker 2: They're willing to talk and tell their side of the story.
- 12:58Speaker 4: Cos they're proud. Exactly.
- 13:04Speaker 1: East Timor has a reputation for violence and signs of
- 13:07Speaker 1: gang activity are everywhere. I've been here just a few
- 13:13Speaker 1: days when I was put in touch with one of
- 13:15Speaker 1: the biggest gangs on the island, PSH2. Well, it's not
- 13:22Speaker 1: often you get to meet a guy whose martial arts
- 13:24Speaker 1: organization has more members than the police, the army, and
- 13:28Speaker 1: in this case, the United Nation peacekeepers combined.
- 13:32Speaker 4: That's powerful.
- 13:33Speaker 12: Pardon me.
- 13:42Speaker 4: Fotagio? Good morning.
- 13:45Speaker 2: Good morning.
- 13:47Speaker 5: Thank you.
- 13:48Speaker 1: Fotagio de Jesus Maya de Andrade heads an estimated 31,000
- 13:53Speaker 1: followers of the martial art Penjak Silat. Its Indonesian roots
- 13:58Speaker 1: have caused suspicion and accusations of collaboration with the old occupiers.
- 14:03Speaker 1: But that hasn't prevented PSHT becoming one of the most
- 14:07Speaker 1: powerful and influential groups in the country.
- 14:13Speaker 13: There are other organizations on the island that occasionally clash, maybe,
- 14:20Speaker 13: I think, with you sometimes.
- 14:22Speaker 4: What are your views on those other organizations?
- 14:41Speaker 3: I was attacked by the army. I was attacked by
- 14:42Speaker 3: the army.
- 14:42Speaker 13: I was attacked by the army. I was attacked by
- 14:44Speaker 13: the army. I was attacked by the army. I was
- 14:46Speaker 13: attacked by the army. I was attacked by the army.
- 14:49Speaker 13: I was attacked by the army. I was attacked by
- 14:52Speaker 13: the army.
- 14:52Speaker 3: I was attacked by the army.
- 14:54Speaker 13: I was attacked by the army. We were told to
- 15:12Speaker 13: go to Barakli. We went to Barakli, but we didn't
- 15:13Speaker 13: go to Barakli. There were no members of the police.
- 15:15Speaker 13: We were told to go to Barakli. There were no
- 15:16Speaker 13: members of the police. We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:18Speaker 13: There were no members of the police.
- 15:19Speaker 3: We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:20Speaker 13: There were no members of the police. We were told
- 15:22Speaker 13: to go to Barakli. We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:24Speaker 13: We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:25Speaker 3: We were told to go to Barakli. We were told
- 15:28Speaker 3: to go to Barakli. We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:31Speaker 3: We were told to go to Barakli. We were told
- 15:32Speaker 3: to go to Barakli. We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:34Speaker 3: We were told to go to Barakli. We were told
- 15:35Speaker 3: to go to Barakli. We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:37Speaker 3: We were told to go to Barakli.
- 15:38Speaker 1: We were told to go Would you mind showing me
- 15:40Speaker 1: the injury where the arrow hit you? There.
- 15:49Speaker 4: See, the scar where the arrow went in. And there's
- 15:51Speaker 4: another one up here. How did you get that one?
- 16:03Speaker 1: Having done a little pen jack myself, I was curious
- 16:06Speaker 1: to see Fortaggio's people doing their stuff. and they were
- 16:09Speaker 1: only too happy to show.
- 16:16Speaker 4: Me.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Like most gangs or groups involved in conflict, PSHT consider
- 16:22Speaker 1: themselves more sinned against than sinning. And watching them in action,
- 16:26Speaker 1: I was beginning to think of them as just a
- 16:28Speaker 1: nice community group, until, that is, I got talking to
- 16:32Speaker 1: some of the guys who train with Portagio.
- 16:35Speaker 2: I'm from Portagio.
- 16:37Speaker 3: I was attacked by the police.
- 16:40Speaker 4: I was shot.
- 16:40Speaker 3: I was shot by the police. I was shot by
- 16:43Speaker 3: the police. I was shot by the police. I was
- 16:44Speaker 3: shot by the police. I was shot by the police.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Then I met Mr Lopez, a trainee policeman, who once
- 17:17Speaker 1: faced a gang of 150 people.
- 17:20Speaker 4: And they wanted to kill you?
- 17:22Speaker 11: They said, Lopez, come out, come out. If you didn't
- 17:24Speaker 11: come out, we will kill all of your family.
- 17:27Speaker 1: Were these people aligned to any other, like, COCA or
- 17:31Speaker 1: to 7-7?
- 17:32Speaker 11: Oh, yeah, I recognise them very well. They are from 7-7...
- 17:36Speaker 11: some of them from Corka, but I still talked with
- 17:39Speaker 11: the guy, the person, you know.
- 17:41Speaker 5: The leader.
- 17:41Speaker 3: The leader, the person who died.
- 17:43Speaker 11: And suddenly he caught me, then I moved back. And
- 17:46Speaker 11: I moved back, and I saw my blood.
- 17:49Speaker 2: See, they come out.
- 17:50Speaker 11: And then, you know, I pretended that, you know, I
- 17:53Speaker 11: almost go, I almost dying. And I said, oh my God,
- 17:56Speaker 11: I'm dying. You know, everybody laughing and so on. And
- 17:59Speaker 11: that's how they lose their control. And suddenly I took
- 18:01Speaker 11: the samurai.
- 18:02Speaker 2: Then I move.
- 18:03Speaker 11: I said, no, it's better, you go. And then you
- 18:06Speaker 11: want to attack him for the second time, right? Because
- 18:08Speaker 11: he move like this, or somewhere like this.
- 18:11Speaker 3: You want to cut me. Then I just, you know, like,
- 18:14Speaker 3: move a little bit. Then I stab him.
- 18:17Speaker 4: You stab him, yeah?
- 18:17Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 18:19Speaker 4: What happened to this guy? This guy die? This guy
- 18:21Speaker 4: you stab?
- 18:21Speaker 3: I didn't show.
- 18:22Speaker 2: But did they say what happened to him?
- 18:24Speaker 11: But I only remember I stabbed him once.
- 18:25Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
- 18:26Speaker 4: Did he die, though? I didn't show. You don't know? Yeah.
- 18:29Speaker 4: Did the police know?
- 18:31Speaker 11: Yeah, they suspect me that I'm the one who killed
- 18:34Speaker 11: the guy.
- 18:34Speaker 4: And you killed, so he did die then, yeah?
- 18:36Speaker 3: That's what they say.
- 18:37Speaker 4: That's what they say?
- 18:38Speaker 11: That's what they suspect me.
- 18:39Speaker 2: How is your arm now? Is it bad?
- 18:41Speaker 13: Can I have a look?
- 18:41Speaker 1: Uh, yeah.
- 18:43Speaker 4: He hasn't stopped you from doing the pen jack, though.
- 18:45Speaker 4: You're still doing the pen jack, huh?
- 18:47Speaker 3: No, no, not yet.
- 18:49Speaker 1: Wait.
- 18:50Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good... He hit you bad, huh? Yeah,
- 18:53Speaker 4: it's very bad.
- 18:53Speaker 2: He wanted me to die.
- 18:54Speaker 4: He wanted you to die, yeah?
- 18:56Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 18:56Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we've just spent an afternoon with PSHT, and
- 19:07Speaker 1: I have to say I'm not only impressed with their
- 19:09Speaker 1: martial arts skills, but also with the structure of their organisation.
- 19:15Speaker 1: They say they're not a gang, but all the other
- 19:16Speaker 1: gangs here seem to believe that they are. One thing's
- 19:20Speaker 1: for sure, I've never met a gang that has such influence.
- 19:23Speaker 4: In virtually every strata of society here.
- 19:26Speaker 1: They have members in high-ranking positions in the army and
- 19:29Speaker 1: in the police, and they.
- 19:30Speaker 4: Have a lot of influence here politically. Now I wanted
- 19:35Speaker 4: to find 7-7.
- 19:36Speaker 1: That evening, I met up with the Guardia National Republica,
- 19:40Speaker 1: or GNR, from Portugal, the former colonial power. They are
- 19:45Speaker 1: respected on the streets here and well-placed to get me
- 19:47Speaker 1: closer to the elusive ritual arts gang who are PSHT's
- 19:51Speaker 1: sworn enemies. Our first stop of the night was an
- 19:58Speaker 1: internally displaced person's camp near our hotel. The camp's a
- 20:02Speaker 1: well-known trouble spot, providing the gangs with a ready source
- 20:05Speaker 1: of manpower. The local police have turned up, and now
- 20:09Speaker 1: the GNR have shown.
- 20:11Speaker 4: They've backed off.
- 20:13Speaker 2: They're letting the GNR guys go and do what they do.
- 20:21Speaker 1: The graffiti is an indication that this is 7-7 territory,
- 20:25Speaker 1: but no-one seems in a mood for talking. Trouble tends
- 20:30Speaker 1: to melt away when the GNR arrive, so we moved
- 20:33Speaker 1: on to another part of Dillard.
- 20:36Speaker 10: I don't know, two days ago they threw rocks.
- 20:40Speaker 12: They threw rocks in our house at 12 o'clock in
- 20:44Speaker 12: the middle of the night.
- 20:45Speaker 4: And we didn't know what was going on. Who was it?
- 20:48Speaker 4: People from upstairs.
- 20:53Speaker 1: The lady you may have just heard screaming and ranting
- 20:58Speaker 1: was only talking to me less than 40 seconds ago,
- 21:02Speaker 1: very clearly.
- 21:02Speaker 4: In English, very concisely.
- 21:23Speaker 1: As soon as she saw the people that she believed
- 21:26Speaker 1: had been throwing rocks at her house, she flipped. And
- 21:30Speaker 1: her hysteria was catching.
- 21:32Speaker 4: The men got involved as well.
- 21:34Speaker 1: And a lot of those guys were wearing Acqui Jazz T-shirts,
- 21:37Speaker 1: which we.
- 21:37Speaker 4: Know to be a gang around here. They denied to
- 21:39Speaker 4: be being gang members.
- 21:41Speaker 1: But, you know, whether it's gang-related or not, you can
- 21:44Speaker 1: see how quickly things can change here.
- 21:47Speaker 4: One second, very peaceful. The next minute, hysteria.
- 21:51Speaker 1: Young men here are often forced into gangs for self-protection.
- 21:55Speaker 1: Jose took me to a project he'd set up himself
- 21:58Speaker 1: to try and help kids avoid gang life.
- 22:00Speaker 4: So where are these kids from?
- 22:02Speaker 2: From this neighbourhood.
- 22:06Speaker 4: These kids, in a way, are potential gang members, aren't they?
- 22:08Speaker 2: They're ex-gang members.
- 22:10Speaker 1: Already?
- 22:11Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 22:14Speaker 2: The story of Jose, for example.
- 22:17Speaker 12: Jose is somebody I've got a lot of respect for,
- 22:20Speaker 12: He used to be a member of PSHT. He then said, no,
- 22:24Speaker 12: I don't want to be a member of any group.
- 22:26Speaker 2: Pulled out from it. He was hunted. He's still hunted.
- 22:29Speaker 4: For leaving? Yeah. Not allowed to. Well, once you're in.
- 22:34Speaker 2: Once you're in, you're in. This is what they used
- 22:37Speaker 2: to protect themselves.
- 22:39Speaker 1: Okay?
- 22:39Speaker 2: This is the rambambon.
- 22:40Speaker 4: Fuck. Okay?
- 22:44Speaker 2: This is what they fired out of.
- 22:47Speaker 4: That's a blade, obviously, with a hook on it.
- 22:49Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 22:49Speaker 2: So once it enters, you can't pull it out.
- 22:51Speaker 4: It's a harpoon.
- 22:52Speaker 3: I had one of these.
- 22:53Speaker 11: All right.
- 22:57Speaker 2: Straight in there.
- 22:57Speaker 7: And I'll take it.
- 22:59Speaker 1: Jose was yet another victim of the state-of-the-art weapons that
- 23:03Speaker 1: abound in this retro war. I wanted to know more
- 23:06Speaker 1: about this sling and dart combo that seems to be
- 23:09Speaker 1: the weapon of choice around here. Our fixer Mauricio has
- 23:14Speaker 1: managed to find someone who will show us how they.
- 23:17Speaker 4: Make these darts and these slings here.
- 23:20Speaker 1: It's an arrestable offence to possess one or to make one.
- 23:22Speaker 2: So that's all it takes.
- 23:25Speaker 10: A handful of easily obtained hardware, including a six-inch nail,
- 23:29Speaker 10: and you've got a Ramba Ambom.
- 23:45Speaker 1: One of the most frequently used weapons on the Timorese streets.
- 23:50Speaker 10: It's gone in there.
- 24:06Speaker 4: Obviously, it's travelled all the way through it.
- 24:10Speaker 2: Up to the Yockey, it's Kemp.
- 24:14Speaker 4: Kemp of Essex. Try and hit that one.
- 24:24Speaker 2: There. One more go.
- 24:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 24:32Speaker 1: Sometimes I have to question my ability. Is it really
- 24:35Speaker 1: worth pursuing a career with no stability? One minute you're here,
- 24:39Speaker 1: next minute you're gone. It's like you just disappear when
- 24:42Speaker 1: they finish playing... My first Sunday in East Timor, the
- 24:44Speaker 1: day on which the Timorese show the other side of
- 24:47Speaker 1: their character. Despite the violence, this is a deeply religious country.
- 24:54Speaker 1: All the gangs claim to have God on their side
- 24:56Speaker 1: and Catholicism has a massive influence on life here. On
- 25:02Speaker 1: Sunday mornings, 70% of the Timorese attend church. And on
- 25:07Speaker 1: Sunday afternoons, thousands more Timorese come to places like this
- 25:12Speaker 1: in search of less spiritual pursuits. Scambling is a major
- 25:20Speaker 1: part of the culture here, and cockfighting is a big-money sport,
- 25:25Speaker 1: with hundreds of dollars changing hands over a rooster's pugilistic potential.
- 25:42Speaker 1: But I wasn't here as a punter. Jose had told
- 25:45Speaker 1: me these weekly cockfights raised revenue for the gangs, and
- 25:49Speaker 1: I wanted to see if I could make contact with 7-7.
- 26:11Speaker 1: This guy's tattoo told me we'd come to the right place.
- 26:23Speaker 1: I've just been given some contact details and hopefully this
- 26:25Speaker 1: piece of paper will lead us to 7-7. Two days later,
- 26:33Speaker 1: I went to Santa Cruz Cemetery to rendezvous with the
- 26:36Speaker 1: man from 7-7. This was the scene of an infamous
- 26:40Speaker 1: massacre in 1991 when Indonesian troops killed 100 mourners at
- 26:45Speaker 1: a funeral. When 7-7 supporters claimed to have been saved
- 26:49Speaker 1: from death by their membership of the ritual arts group,
- 26:52Speaker 1: a gang legend was born.
- 26:54Speaker 4: My contact, Mr.
- 26:56Speaker 1: January, is a 7-7 survivor of the incident.
- 27:03Speaker 7: At that time, I was about to die. I was
- 27:06Speaker 7: only 30 minutes away from death. I was about to die.
- 27:08Speaker 7: I was about to die. I was about to die.
- 27:10Speaker 7: I was about to die. I was about to die.
- 27:12Speaker 7: I was about to die. I was a soldier, but
- 27:31Speaker 7: I was a soldier. I was a soldier, but I
- 27:33Speaker 7: was a soldier. I was a soldier, but I was
- 27:35Speaker 7: a soldier. I was a soldier, but I was a soldier.
- 27:38Speaker 1: I was a soldier, but I was a soldier. I
- 27:40Speaker 1: was a soldier, but I was a soldier.
- 27:43Speaker 7: I was a soldier, but I was a soldier. I
- 27:48Speaker 7: was a soldier, but I was a soldier. I was
- 27:50Speaker 7: a soldier, but I was a soldier. I was a soldier,
- 27:52Speaker 7: but I was a soldier.
- 28:01Speaker 4: Would you mind showing me where you were shot, please?
- 28:05Speaker 3: It's here, yeah? Yeah.
- 28:09Speaker 4: You can just see the hole. That's where it's gone in.
- 28:12Speaker 4: I can understand why you believe you're invincible.
- 28:24Speaker 1: It had taken me a while to get to 7-7,
- 28:27Speaker 1: a highly secretive organisation that had played a big part
- 28:30Speaker 1: in the resistance against Indonesia. But through Mr January, I
- 28:35Speaker 1: was put in touch with 7-7's president.
- 28:37Speaker 4: Present.
- 28:51Speaker 1: Agostino Fernandes had invited me to witness a secret ceremony.
- 28:57Speaker 4: But first, I was due.
- 28:59Speaker 1: For a crash course in 7-7's religious philosophy.
- 29:04Speaker 7: This is our culture, our tradition, the organization of 7-7.
- 29:09Speaker 4: I'm very happy to be here.
- 29:11Speaker 3: To go to the.
- 29:13Speaker 4: First world, 0-0, I'm very happy to be here. In 7-7,
- 29:15Speaker 4: I love the cream here. He was a minister. He
- 29:30Speaker 4: was a minister, and he was a minister. He was
- 29:31Speaker 4: a minister, and he was a minister. He was a minister,
- 29:32Speaker 4: and he was a minister. He was a minister, and
- 29:33Speaker 4: he was a minister. He was a minister, and he
- 29:34Speaker 4: was a minister. He was a minister, and he was
- 29:35Speaker 4: a minister. He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:37Speaker 4: He was a minister, and he was a minister. He
- 29:38Speaker 4: was a minister, and he was a minister. He was
- 29:40Speaker 4: a minister, and he was a minister. He was a minister,
- 29:41Speaker 4: and he was a minister.
- 29:41Speaker 2: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:42Speaker 4: He was a minister, and he was a minister. He
- 29:43Speaker 4: was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:44Speaker 9: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:45Speaker 2: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:46Speaker 4: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:47Speaker 1: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:48Speaker 2: He was a minister, and he was a minister.
- 29:50Speaker 1: He was a minister, and he was a minister I'd
- 29:51Speaker 1: be a liar to say I was following everything the
- 29:54Speaker 1: president was telling me. But 7-7 is fundamentally a belief
- 29:58Speaker 1: system that mixes Catholicism with pre-Christian animist tradition.
- 30:05Speaker 4: I'd be very scared if I was you.
- 30:07Speaker 1: In keeping with the secretive nature of 7-7, all their
- 30:10Speaker 1: ceremonies take place after dark.
- 30:17Speaker 12: This is what Jose had told me about.
- 30:19Speaker 4: The magic powder, the.
- 30:20Speaker 1: Sacrifice, and the seven cuts to tie Mr. January's life
- 30:49Speaker 1: force to 7-7. It's the first time this ceremony has
- 30:53Speaker 1: been shown on television. It's easy to be dismissive of
- 31:08Speaker 1: 7-7's belief that they can be protected against everything, including bullets.
- 31:13Speaker 1: But when you spend 20-odd years fighting a superior force
- 31:16Speaker 1: like the Indonesians, a mythology like this would certainly help
- 31:21Speaker 1: to inspire the troops. Like PSHT, 7-7 claim to do
- 31:34Speaker 1: nothing more than act defensively against attacks by their rivals.
- 31:47Speaker 1: A senior member of 7-7 reads the pig's entrails to
- 31:51Speaker 1: see what the future holds. I just said that the
- 31:59Speaker 1: knife is as sharp as the owner and as bad.
- 32:01Speaker 4: As the owner.
- 32:06Speaker 1: So he's just said that the other side of the
- 32:09Speaker 1: liver sort of represents us and that we're clean, that
- 32:11Speaker 1: we're okay.
- 32:13Speaker 4: And we're good to be here, which is a bit
- 32:15Speaker 4: of a relief. This is a highly religious country.
- 32:26Speaker 1: The kids are also brought up here from an early
- 32:28Speaker 1: age to believe in ghosts and spirits. So it's not
- 32:31Speaker 1: that strange to find a gang that believes in both
- 32:33Speaker 1: animism and Catholicism. That said, some cuts in my arm
- 32:36Speaker 1: with some sacred mud rubbed into it and a pig
- 32:39Speaker 1: reading wouldn't convince me to take nine rounds in the chest.
- 32:42Speaker 1: Rumors rapidly become facts here. So a gang that's 30,000
- 32:46Speaker 1: strong that believes it's invincible has to be a force
- 32:49Speaker 1: to be reckoned with. I'd been in East Timor for
- 32:57Speaker 1: over a week and was growing used to the volatility
- 33:00Speaker 1: of life here. Now I was on my way to
- 33:03Speaker 1: Dili Hospital. Our fixer Maurizio had heard of a guy
- 33:07Speaker 1: who'd ended up there after being beaten up in a
- 33:10Speaker 1: gang attack.
- 33:12Speaker 4: Does he know why he was attacked?
- 33:13Speaker 11: He doesn't know.
- 33:16Speaker 2: Does he know how many people attacked him? He said
- 33:19Speaker 2: many people.
- 33:19Speaker 3: This is Mr. Dart.
- 33:24Speaker 4: I'm dressing his wound. They had to cut the dart out.
- 33:27Speaker 4: How was the dart in or did they pull it out?
- 33:29Speaker 9: They have to.
- 33:31Speaker 3: Do the surgery to remove the dart.
- 33:41Speaker 4: And they had more than one dart, and one dart
- 33:43Speaker 4: hit him, yeah? Yeah, one dart.
- 33:44Speaker 11: And then stones in his left face.
- 33:50Speaker 1: So his jaw's completely broken, that's why they've wired it together,
- 33:53Speaker 1: so he can't move it, so it's stabilized, yeah?
- 33:55Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 33:56Speaker 4: So they left him for dead, yeah? Yes. They thought
- 33:59Speaker 4: they killed him?
- 34:00Speaker 11: They thought they killed him and then they left him there.
- 34:02Speaker 4: He's very lucky, because he could have bled to death,
- 34:04Speaker 4: couldn't he?
- 34:04Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 34:06Speaker 4: Wish him well, yeah? Just say, I hope he has
- 34:08Speaker 4: a speedy recovery.
- 34:15Speaker 1: No one was willing to say what had caused the
- 34:17Speaker 1: attack on Mr. Duarte, but I noticed that the temperature
- 34:21Speaker 1: on the streets had been rising in line with the
- 34:24Speaker 1: political climate. The politics of East Timor are complex and
- 34:29Speaker 1: the gangs are heavily involved. I had been told that
- 34:33Speaker 1: power was the name of the game and political influence
- 34:36Speaker 1: is the ultimate goal. In 2005, Corker announced that they
- 34:41Speaker 1: were supporting one of the major parties, and other gangs
- 34:45Speaker 1: are known to have party political affiliations. But when I
- 34:49Speaker 1: went to visit PSHD again, Fortaggio seemed determined to play
- 34:54Speaker 1: the whole thing down. Your enemies say that you wield
- 34:59Speaker 1: significant political power in this country.
- 35:02Speaker 4: Is that true?
- 35:03Speaker 3: La Loz.
- 35:05Speaker 13: We have a lot of political and political leaders. We
- 35:10Speaker 13: have a lot of political leaders. We have a lot
- 35:13Speaker 13: of political leaders. We have a lot of political leaders.
- 35:18Speaker 13: We have a lot of political leaders.
- 35:46Speaker 1: I was getting used to gang members emphasising the passive
- 35:49Speaker 1: nature of their organisations. But the fact remains that Fotagio
- 35:53Speaker 1: is only standing in as head of PSHT because the
- 35:57Speaker 1: real leader is in jail on weapons charges. After his arrest,
- 36:02Speaker 1: PSHT's officers were destroyed by 7-7. Your actual president is
- 36:09Speaker 1: in prison at the moment. Can you tell me what
- 36:12Speaker 1: exactly happened?
- 36:13Speaker 3: I was arrested.
- 36:14Speaker 2: I was arrested. I was arrested. I was arrested. I
- 36:17Speaker 2: was arrested.
- 36:26Speaker 13: We are sad, but we understand the situation and the crisis.
- 36:28Speaker 13: We understand that we have to work. My time in
- 36:44Speaker 13: East Timor was drawing to an end. But to find
- 36:46Speaker 13: out more about the gang's political influence, I decided to
- 36:50Speaker 13: meet up once again with Jose.
- 36:53Speaker 6: It's part of the whole.
- 37:10Speaker 12: The whole beauty of it, I suppose, where you're not
- 37:12Speaker 12: really just dealing with the criminal underground here, you're dealing
- 37:14Speaker 12: with organisations which can reach into all levels of society.
- 37:18Speaker 12: Last year, the gangs were mainly a political tool for destabilisation.
- 37:23Speaker 4: They were used again as rent-a-crowd.
- 37:24Speaker 12: As rent-a-crowd, as foot soldiers, as protection for ministers, as
- 37:28Speaker 12: protection for opposition leaders.
- 37:31Speaker 4: If that's the case presently, what's the next step?
- 37:34Speaker 11: I mean, if.
- 37:36Speaker 12: At the moment, a lot of this violence has to
- 37:38Speaker 12: be controlled by the political leaders or political leads or
- 37:41Speaker 12: people that want to cause this. But as these gangs
- 37:46Speaker 12: grow in their numbers and they become more and more
- 37:50Speaker 12: proficient in what they.
- 37:51Speaker 2: Do, and as they lose their political backers, what are
- 37:53Speaker 2: they going to turn into? Are they just going to
- 37:55Speaker 2: go away? They're not just going to go away.
- 37:57Speaker 1: You don't create that situation and then expect to just
- 38:02Speaker 1: leave it.
- 38:02Speaker 2: It's a nefesta, isn't it?
- 38:06Speaker 1: Concerns about the gang problem here go right to the top.
- 38:09Speaker 1: President Ramos Horta convened a meeting with the gangs last
- 38:12Speaker 1: year to try and broker a truce.
- 38:14Speaker 4: Now he's agreed to talk to us.
- 38:19Speaker 1: The president is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but it
- 38:22Speaker 1: seems even he'd lost patience with the gangs.
- 38:25Speaker 9: I was very angry. I said, you know, you are disgraced.
- 38:29Speaker 9: Your attitude has made martial arts synonymous with crime. I
- 38:34Speaker 9: told them, here in these four rooms, I'm going to
- 38:39Speaker 9: leave and you people can, you will stay on and talk.
- 38:46Speaker 9: If you want to kill each other, help yourselves. You
- 38:49Speaker 9: do it, kill yourself here. On the other hand, if
- 38:53Speaker 9: you want to engage in dialogue, talk rationally with each
- 38:57Speaker 9: other and be of service to your own country, well,
- 39:02Speaker 9: you have a chance. I'll come back a few hours
- 39:04Speaker 9: from now. either I'll find some of you dead or
- 39:08Speaker 9: you have reached some agreement. I was told that when
- 39:11Speaker 9: I left, they started talking to each other and they cried.
- 39:15Speaker 4: They were embarrassed.
- 39:17Speaker 9: And they signed that document, which, you know, but some
- 39:23Speaker 9: of them, till today, they have attempted to behave, but
- 39:28Speaker 9: among the seven groups that signed, the document, a few
- 39:32Speaker 9: of them, a few hours later or two, three days later,
- 39:36Speaker 9: started violating that very agreement they signed.
- 39:38Speaker 1: How much political influence do you think these martial arts
- 39:42Speaker 1: groups or gangs or movements.
- 39:46Speaker 4: wield politically in the country? And is that a concern
- 39:48Speaker 4: for you?
- 39:49Speaker 9: No, they do not have a political influence as such.
- 39:56Speaker 9: One major martial arts group called Korka, they are formally
- 40:04Speaker 9: affiliated with the largest political party here. But this particular
- 40:10Speaker 9: group is one of those that I met and Many
- 40:15Speaker 9: of the meetings I have had with them, I was
- 40:18Speaker 9: very blunt, very robust with them, and they have behaved.
- 40:23Speaker 9: If and when the government is ready to really kick-start
- 40:29Speaker 9: the economy with major investments and spread the wealth in
- 40:33Speaker 9: the city, particularly rebuilding housing for the poor, most of
- 40:38Speaker 9: these people will gradually disappear into the mainstream.
- 40:48Speaker 1: But within hours of our interview, President Porter's optimism began
- 40:52Speaker 1: to seem misplaced. His announcement of a new government led
- 40:57Speaker 1: to an explosion of violence. Seven Seven's political allies were
- 41:01Speaker 1: the losers and their supporters in the IDP camp near
- 41:04Speaker 1: our hotel quickly.
- 41:06Speaker 4: Took to the streets. These guys from the right of me,
- 41:14Speaker 4: the guys.
- 41:14Speaker 1: That have just been throwing rocks and setting fire to
- 41:18Speaker 1: the tires. The army have just got up, the New
- 41:20Speaker 1: Zealand Army and GNR.
- 41:22Speaker 4: They've put the.
- 41:22Speaker 1: Tires out, but they're still ready to go, as you
- 41:24Speaker 1: can see.
- 41:25Speaker 4: They're not very happy about us filming them.
- 41:27Speaker 1: This is exactly what we've been told about all the
- 41:29Speaker 1: time that we've been here. And it's very easy here
- 41:32Speaker 1: to get a full sense of security.
- 41:35Speaker 4: People are very, very friendly. They're very, very happy to
- 41:37Speaker 4: see you. They smile and then... something, something very small,
- 41:41Speaker 4: something very large in this case.
- 41:42Speaker 1: A new prime minister, has triggered off the violence.
- 41:46Speaker 4: As I say, they've put the tires out now. We'll
- 41:48Speaker 4: see if it escalates.
- 41:50Speaker 1: But everyone around here is saying it's going to be
- 41:51Speaker 1: a very long night tonight, and it will spontaneously click
- 41:55Speaker 1: off at different points through Dili for the next 24 hours.
- 42:09Speaker 1: As the IGP camp appeared to be calming down, violence
- 42:12Speaker 1: fled up in another part of Dili.
- 42:15Speaker 4: Are you all.
- 42:17Speaker 10: Right?
- 42:21Speaker 11: Yeah, you just want to wait over beer or you
- 42:25Speaker 11: might get puked.
- 42:26Speaker 2: Really?
- 42:26Speaker 4: Is that bad?
- 42:27Speaker 2: You'll be all right.
- 42:31Speaker 1: Once again, it was a game of cat and mouse
- 42:33Speaker 1: between the heavily armed peacekeepers and the rioters, who quickly
- 42:38Speaker 1: melted away.
- 42:38Speaker 6: We're down at the front there.
- 42:49Speaker 4: The fire tear gassed and the wind's changed.
- 42:51Speaker 2: So we've just.
- 42:53Speaker 6: Gassed, we gassed.
- 42:56Speaker 4: Everyone's backing off.
- 42:57Speaker 2: It hasn't got gas masks.
- 42:58Speaker 4: They're coming back this way.
- 43:22Speaker 1: As night fell, we got reports of fires being started.
- 43:32Speaker 1: We mentioned before how arson is used in this country
- 43:36Speaker 1: by gangs and by people who are unhappy. This was
- 43:41Speaker 1: a place where many of the records for the country
- 43:43Speaker 1: were kept, and as of tonight, the place doesn't exist anymore.
- 43:48Speaker 4: I think we should go.
- 44:03Speaker 1: That night, Dili went to sleep with parts of the
- 44:05Speaker 1: city in flames. And by the next morning, arsonists had
- 44:09Speaker 1: set light to a building right opposite our neighbouring IDP camp.
- 44:48Speaker 1: When the Indonesian occupiers built the statue of Christ the
- 44:51Speaker 1: King in 1995, many of the Timorese said that Jesus
- 44:55Speaker 1: looked out to sea because he couldn't bear to look
- 44:57Speaker 1: upon what was happening in East Timor. Well, now the
- 44:59Speaker 1: occupiers have gone, but so many other problems still remain.
- 45:02Speaker 4: And at the root of most of them is the
- 45:05Speaker 4: country's gang culture. This place has such potential, but.
- 45:08Speaker 1: If it's ever to be realized, something has to be
- 45:10Speaker 1: done about the poverty and the unemployment here. Otherwise, East
- 45:14Speaker 1: Timor will turn into just another gangster's paradise.