By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney : Australia Monday pledged more troops and security reinforcements to East Timor following the assassination attempts on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in what seems to be a failed coup by rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado, who was killed in the ensuing gun battle.
“The Australian government will stand resolutely behind East Timor at this time of crisis in their democracy,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a news conference in capital Canberra.
He said he was deeply shocked by the events in East Timor, and added that he would visit Dili (capital of East Timor) this week.
About 780 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are in East Timor as part of a United Nations International Stabilisation Force (UNISF) and the number will be boosted to 1,000, he said.
“An appropriate show of force is necessary. The coordinated attempt to assassinate the democratically elected leadership of a close neighbour and friend of Australia is a deep and disturbing development,” Rudd said.
Ramos-Horta, the 58-year-old Nobel peace laureate, who was attacked at his home in Dili Monday morning, was flown in an induced coma to the northern Australian city of Darwin and admitted to the Royal Darwin military hospital.
“The condition of Ramos-Horta is serious but stable,” said Ian Badham, spokesman for medical evacuation service CareFlight International that conducted the flight.
Prime Minister Gusmao, who escaped unhurt after rebels attacked his car and home, told reporters that situation in Dili was under control. “The state came under attack. I consider this incident is a coup attempt against the state by Reinado and it failed,” he said.
In 2006, the tiny country was plunged into uncertainty after the sacking of 600 mutinous soldiers that triggered unrest, killing 37 people and rendering more than 150,000 homeless. The situation also led to a government collapse.
According to reports from Dili, the capital is calm. But observers warned of possible reprisal attacks following the death of Reinado, who led a revolt by rebellious troops against the government and had been facing murder charges linked to the 2006 violence.
He was jailed but escaped during a mass jailbreak. Reinado had been demanding that the 600 soldiers sacked ahead of the 2006 turmoil be reinstated in the army.
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, a defence minister in former Australian prime minister John Howard’s government, described the failed assassination attempts as “deplorable” and supported the government’s decision to send more troops to East Timor.
“It’s very important for Australia to see there is security in East Timor. It’s very much in Australia’s interest to see there is a stable fledgling democracy,” Nelson told reporters.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attacks on the two men, who led the Pacific nation to independence.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said: “Hopefully the rebellion will weaken (with the death of Reinado) and it is our hope that his followers surrender so that the problem of security disturbances in our neighbour can soon be overcome.”
In a statement, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that the attack on Ramos-Horta was a great shock and of grave concern to New Zealand.
“The attack is a tragic reminder of the continuing fragile nature of security in Timor-Leste (East Timor). There has been significant progress over the last year, including the successful conduct of national elections. Hopefully today’s events will not lead to renewed instability and unrest in an already volatile nation,” he said.