Protesters call for Timor PM Alkatiri's resignation

DILI, June 20 (Reuters) About 300 people rallied outside East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's office today to demand his resignation as international troops tightened security in the capital, Dili.

Many of the protesters carried banners with slogans such as ''Alkatiri is a terrorist'', ''Alkatiri is a communist'' and ''Viva Australia'' while one poster had a picture of a snake with Alkatiri's head.

''We have come here to demand Mari Alkatiri's resignation from his position,'' Augusto Junior, the spokesman of the protesters, told reporters.

''We will stay here until the fulfilment of our demands.'' The young nation was plunged into violence in May after Alkatiri sacked 600 of the 1,400-strong army for mutiny when they protested about alleged discrimination against soldiers from the west of the country.

Since then, rebel troops and thousands of protesters have called for Alkatiri's removal, blaming him for the violence that has seen youth gangs fighting, looting and burning buildings in Dili.

A 2,500-strong international peacekeeping force led by Australian troops now patrols the capital.

Aside from regional differences at the root of the problems within the military, East Timor faces struggles for power and simmering resentments between those who stayed in the country during its fight for independence from Indonesia -- which annexed it in 1976 -- and those who spent that time largely in exile, including Prime Minister Alkatiri.

There are also differences over what languages should be used and how to combat poverty.

Burning, looting and scattered killings since the peacekeepers arrived have been blamed largely on youth gangs, whose political motives, if any, are murky at best.

A former Portuguese colony, East Timor, some 2,100 km (1,300 miles) east of Jakarta, was occupied by Indonesia at the end of 1975.

It became independent in 2002 after being run by the United Nations for two-and-half years after a referendum voted overwhelmingly for independence in 1999.

REUTERS KD RN1523