Vol. 72/No. 14      April 7, 2008

Ramos-Horta was seriously injured in the February 11 attack. The rebel soldiers, led by former army lieutenant Gastao Salsinha, retreated to the mountains west of Dili, the capital, following the attempt. The government of East Timor declared a state of emergency, establishing an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and prohibiting all public gatherings. The curfew is set to expire at the end of March.

The Australian government sent an additional 120 soldiers and 70 federal police to Dili following the attack.

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd flew in to Dili February 15 in a show of Canberra’s determination to restore stability in East Timor.

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, lies between Indonesia and Australia. It is the poorest nation in the Asia-Pacific region. Some 40 percent of its 1 million people live below the official poverty line. Only 11 percent of homes in the countryside have electricity. The country has rich oil and gas deposits off its shores, but the Australian rulers get the bulk of the profits from their extraction.

East Timor was a colony of Portugal until 1975. It was then occupied by Indonesia with the backing of Canberra and Washington, despite ongoing resistance by the Timorese people. In 1999 Australian troops led a force under the UN flag, replacing Indonesian military rule. Independence was won in 2002.

A leader of the rebel troops, Maj. Alfredo Reinado, was killed together with his bodyguard in the attack on Ramos-Horta’s residence. Their funeral drew 2,000 people.

Reinado emerged as a key figure during civil strife that engulfed East Timor in early 2006, when a mutiny by sections of the military erupted over conditions in the armed forces and regional discrimination over promotions. The government at the time, led by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), responded by firing almost 600 soldiers out of an army of 1,500.

Fighting between rebel troops led by Reinado and forces loyal to the government began in Dili. Thousands of houses were burned and as many as 100,000 people left homeless as a result. In May 2006 the Australian government, under then Prime Minister John Howard, sent 1,300 ground troops into East Timor to restore “stability and normality.”

The intervention was planned to last until the 2007 elections. Ramos-Horta, Canberra’s favored candidate for president, won 70 percent of the vote in those elections, ousting the Fretilin government.

The additional troops Canberra sent in February this year bring the number of Australian troops in East Timor close to 1,000. They are part of an International Stabilization Force established in 2006 by Australia and New Zealand. About 170 New Zealand troops are in East Timor. In addition, about 150 Australian police are part of the 1,500-strong UN police force there.  
 
 
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