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| Members of Portugal's National Guard walk with Portuguese flag before departing for East Timor to support a U.N. peacekeeping force at Figo Maduro Air Base, in Lisbon June 2, 2006. (Xinhua/Reuters) | LISBON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A contingent of 120
Portuguese military police left here late on Friday for Timor-Leste (East Timor)
to help reduce the violence there.
The Portuguese troops will provide security in the
Timorese capital Dili and its suburbs, and help train the country's fledging
police force.
A second aircraft will transport 19 support vehicles,
including six armored cars, to the country early next week.
The departure of the Portuguese troops had been
delayed twice by difficulties in arranging adequate transportation to
Timor-Leste.
Earlier on Friday, Portugal's Foreign Minister Diogo
Freitas doAmaral told a news conference in Lisbon that "it would be desirable
for order to be restored quickly so that the majority of the troops which we are
sending could return in a short time."
The foreign minister also said his country had
refused to put its troops under Australian command.
More than 2,000 troops from Australia, New Zealand
and Malaysia have already been deployed in the riot-torn country to help restore
calm. The troops from New Zealand and Malaysia are under the direct command of
Australia, whose troops make up the bulk of foreign troops in Timor-Leste.
Violence in Timor-Leste erupted in April after some
600 members of the tiny country's 1,400-strong military were dismissed. Enditem
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