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East Timor president shot in assassination bid
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and critically wounded at his home in Dili on Monday in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:27 February 11, 2008
- East Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was wounded in a pre-dawn attack on his home Monday.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Dili: East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and critically wounded at his home in Dili on Monday in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers.
Analysts said this could spark renewed violence and political chaos in the tiny nation.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped injury in another shooting also on Monday morning, officials said.
Australia pledged to send more troops fter the apparently coordinated attack on East Timor's two most famous independence figures.
Residents in Dili reported the capital appeared calm and Gusmao said Ramos-Horta was in a stable condition after the attack in which a key rebel leader, Alfredo Reinado, was killed.
The president, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Carlos Belo for their nonviolent struggle for East Timor's independence from Indonesian occupation, was operated on by an Australian military medical team in Dili before being flown to Darwin in northern Australia for treatment.
"This is a serious attempt on a democratic state," Gusmao told a news conference. He later said that he had asked the acting president, deputy speaker of parliament Vicente Guterres, to impose a curfew in the capital until Wednesday.
An Australian medical official said Ramos-Horta, who was flown to Darwin on life support and in an induced coma, was stable but would undergo further surgery for two bullet wounds.
"He has wounds to the abdomen and lower chest. They are very serious wounds, particularly the chest injury is extremely serious," Dr Len Notaras, general manager of Royal Darwin Hospital, told reporters.
"The next 24 to 48 hours will tell us about his progress. We are optimistic that the good surgical skills here...will mean he will have a good chance of recovery," Notaras said.
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