Thursday 8 March 2007

A Good Night's Sleep

Its been a relatively quiet 24 hours. Only one SMS message yesterday, about rock throwing in the Villa Verde area. Sat outside the courthouse where Lobato was being sentenced for about 2 hours, no protestors, lots of police and heavy rain. I also spent a couple of hours at the airport and nothing happened on the drives in or out. Overnight was one of the quietest I have (n)ever heard in Dili. I think we had possibly 6 cars driving by during the whole night.
We were talking to the lady who runs the fruit and veg. stall opposite us late yesterday afternoon and she told us that the people of her village are very frightened at the moment because they fear they will be attacked at night by Loro’sai coming from the direction of the old Comoro market. But, as mentioned the night was very peaceful.
I think a lot of us are waiting to see if there will be any back-lash following the Lobato verdict (i.e. some people thinking the sentence was too light, some too heavy) but our fruit and veg. lady had not even heard of him!
I’ll have a drive around Dili this morning, stocking up on essentials, including buying electricity as we are getting pretty low, and just generally trying to get a feel for the ‘vibe’ but I'll be keeping the British flags on the car for a little while yet.
My journo’ colleagues have gone back to Darwin this morning so life for me will get back to normal.
Oh, and by the by, I notice the UNPol security briefing was posted today. I wonder if they read our blogs or is that just my own vanity?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Sod,
You make a very interesting point re the fruit and veg woman having never heard of Lobato....poor people trying to exist everyday don't have time to talk about politics. It's the poltiical figures in the background who use the masses for their own self interest. Keep on blogging Mr Sod, I accec9iate it very much!