E Timor president shot in attack
Monday, 11 Feb 2008 10:49
East Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta in critical condition after being shot in failed coup attempt
The president of East Timor is in a critical condition in an Australian hospital after being wounded in a failed coup attempt.
Jose Ramos-Horta was airlifted to Darwin following the dawn attack upon his home in the East Timorese capital Dili.
Hours after the raid, in which armed men opened fire upon Mr Ramos-Horta and his presidential guard, the country's prime minister Xanana Gusamo said he had survived a similar attack.
Mr Gusamo revealed former army major Alfredo Reinado had been shot and killed leading the attack upon the president.
The deserter turned rebel is among three people to have been killed in East Timor's worst crisis since 2006, when 600 soldiers – Reinado among them – were sacked.
A rescue official quoted by Australian news agencies said Mr Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2006, was in a "critical but stable condition".
He is understood to be in an induced coma in Royal Darwin hospital after undergoing surgery.
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the attack as a "deeply disturbing development" and revealed a request from East Timor for its neighbour to increase its peacekeeping presence.
In a statement he said Australia had been asked to provide a "substantial and significant enhancement" to the 800 soldiers and police officers currently deployed in East Timor.
Speaking in Dili hours after surviving an attempt upon his life, Mr Gusamo insisted the government of East Timor, until 1975 a Portuguese colony, was in "control of stability".
Following the end of Portuguese rule East Timor, home to almost one million people, was subject to a brutal Indonesian invasion and subsequent suppression of rights which killed hundreds of thousands of people.
In 2002 the south-east
Asian country declared independence, but four years later it was plunged into crisis again when about a third of its armed forces were sacked.
The United Nations mission in East Timor says it has put police on "high alert" following today's attacks, while the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has amended its travel advice to warn against all but essential travel.