DILI (Reuters) -East Timor’s lawmakers have agreed to scrap plans to provide lifetime pension allowances for themselves, they said on Wednesday, bowing to pressure from thousands of students who have staged demonstrations against the plans since Monday.
East Timor, commonly known as Timor-Leste, has a population of 1.3 million people living on an island slightly bigger than Qatar. It is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations and is dependent on dwindling reserves of oil and gas.
Earlier, more than 1,000 students protested for a third day in front of East Timor’s parliamentary building in the capital Dili, demanding that the government cancel plans to provide lifetime pension allowances for lawmakers.
Parties in the East Timor parliament said they would abolish the plan as an understanding they had struck with the students.
Lawmakers had previously abolished plans to buy 65 cars for themselves, which also triggered anger.
Students had ceased their demonstrations, the parties said.
Protesters this week damaged government buildings, burned tires, and threw rocks at police, leading authorities to fire tear gas at them.
East Timor officially gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a landmark ballot overseen by the U.N. in 1999.
Protests over lawmaker allowances and police brutality have also raged across Indonesia since late August.
(Reporting by Nelson Da Cruz in Dili; Writing by Ananda Teresia and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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