East Timor declares state of emergency after leaders attacked
Tuesday, 12 Feb 2008 11:48
State of emergency declared in East Timor after president seriously wounded in assassination attempt
A two-day state of emergency has been declared in East Timor after the country's leaders were attacked in a failed coup attempt yesterday.
The south-east
Asian nation's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, remains in intensive care in an Australian hospital after being shot three times outside his home in the capital Dili on Monday.
Hours after the attack, Xanana Gusamo's motorcade also came under fire, but the prime minister escaped unscathed.
While the emergency declarations stands for the next 48 hours, demonstrations are banned, new powers have been granted to police and a night-time curfew has been imposed.
"Our country is right now in an extraordinary situation where a state of emergency will bring us back to normality," acting president Vicente Gutteres told state television.
"I ask for your help."
Former army major Alfredo Reinado, who was among 600 soldiers sacked in 2006, has been blamed for the attacks upon the East Timorese leaders.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Gusamo said the deserter had died in the attack upon Mr Ramos-Horta.
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the failed coup attempt and reinforced his country's commitment to East Timor by swelling Australia's peacekeeping presence by about 120 troops.
The United Nations security council is due to debate the East Timorese situation on Thursday, but UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has already condemned the attacks, saying he was "shocked and dismayed".
Mr Ramos-Horta remains in a stable but critical condition in an induced coma, Australian surgeons say.
Federal police are due to launch an investigation into his attempted murder.
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 following the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1975.
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.