East Timor axes plan to buy SUVs for MPs

Dili, East Timor: East Timor s parliament has bowed to public pressure and dropped a plan to buy SUVs for lawmakers in one of southeast Asia s poorest...

Dili, East Timor: East Timor's parliament has bowed to public pressure and dropped a plan to buy SUVs for lawmakers in one of southeast Asia's poorest nations, but sceptical protesters returned to the streets on Wednesday.

Student-led demonstrations against the multi-million dollar purchase drew thousands this week in the capital Dili, with demonstrators and police clashing two days in a row.

Unappeased by the last-minute reversal, around 2,000 demonstrators gathered near the parliament building in Dili for a third straight day on Wednesday, according to an AFP journalist.

"Rumours are that the cars are already on the way," protester Trinito Gaio, 42, told AFP.

"So this is why all of these students and myself are here today -- to make sure my tax money is not going in the... wrong direction."