Text messages panic the people of East Timor

Ina of blog Semantic Bits posted this note that she caught via ABC News Online in Australia. Apparently texting was widely used to spread rumours of impending danger throughout the eastern region of the area.

The ABC article explains:

East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has acknowledged a failure of government leadership in the run-up to the current crisis.

He says it has been exacerbated by people spreading false rumours intended to destabilise the country.

“There has been also a new phenomena of how the telephone, the mobile phone, so effectively used with text messages to scare people to leave the city,” he said.

“For instance, yesterday, thousands and thousands left the town because of rumours that, with FDTL (East Timor Defence Force) withdrawing from the city, there is going to be a slaughter of people from the eastern region.”