they summoned Portuguese police, the warehouse was practically empty. On the same day a crowd of 500 to 600 people protested outside Government House again calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Alkatiri. A group of East Timorese police who arrived to confront the demonstration were stopped and searched by Australian troops, who confiscated their only weapons, several cans of pepper spray, as part of a policy of removing all weapons from the streets. Meanwhile, also on 2 June, the commander of the Australian forces Brigadier Slater met with rebel leader Major Reinado, at his base in Aileu above Dili. Reinado reiterated his calls for Prime Minister Alkatiri to resign, but Alkatiri rejected the calls, instead saying that all "irregular forces" ought to hand in their weapons. In interviews, Slater said that he did not ask Reinado to surrender or participate in negotiations because the situation was not ready for discussions, as not all groups were ready to participate. Slater said that some of the violence seemed coordinated, and that he had been co-operating with the military, the police, the government, and Reinado in an attempt to find those planning the violence. On the night of 2 and 3 June, looting and gang violence destroyed another dozen houses in Dili, and forced the temporary closure of the main road between Dili and the airport to the west of the city, where the international forces were based, although Australian and Malaysian forces quickly secured the road. Over the next few days, violence continued to occur in the suburb of Comoro, the area to the west of the city centre on the road to the airport (also known as Comoro Airfield) where many groups from both the east and the west of the country lived nearby. On 5 June, rival gangs, with over a hundred members each, clashed in the streets armed with spears, machetes and slingshots, before being separated by Australian troops. However at the same time in the centre of Dili, the unrest had all but ended, with commercial areas re-opening and some of the damaged buildings and shops being repaired. Protests, allegations and investigations On 6 June, a convoy of anti-Alkatiri protestors from the west of the country drove to Dili, through the western suburb of Comoro and to the National Parliament and government buildings in the heart of the city. The convoy consisted of at least thirty trucks,