para informar.
Há mais de 24 horas que 57 reclusos fugiram da prisão de Becora, incluindo Reinado, e o Presidente da República continua sem fazer declarações ou nem sequer faz um apelo para que se entreguem.
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Por
Malai Azul 2
à(s)
17:44
"Apesar de frágil, Timor-Leste é uma jovem democracia em que acreditamos. É o país que escolhemos para viver e trabalhar. Desde dia 28 de Abril muito se tem dito sobre a situação em Timor-Leste. Boatos, rumores, alertas, declarações de países estrangeiros, inocentes ou não, têm servido para transmitir um clima de conflito e insegurança que não corresponde ao que vivemos. Vamos tentar transmitir o que se passa aqui. Não o que ouvimos dizer... "
This is my blogchalk: Timor, Timor-Leste, East Timor, Dili, Portuguese, English, Malai Azul, politica, situação, Xanana, Ramos-Horta, Alkatiri, Conflito, Crise, ISF, GNR, UNPOL, UNMIT, ONU, UN.
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East Timor jailbreak by rebel leader
Mark Dodd
August 31, 2006
AUSTRALIAN-trained East Timor rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was on the run last night after leading a mass breakout from Dili's main jail just one week after a new UN mission was given approval to take control of law and order in the country.
Major Reinado, a central figure in the rebellion that forced the June resignation of prime minister Mari Akatiri, escaped with at least 56 other prisoners. Australian soldiers and Australian Federal Police officers were last night involved in a massive manhunt for the unarmed escapees, who include common criminals. SAS troopers - part of the Australian-led intervention force sent into the country in May - were helping in the search using Black Hawk helicopters and night-vision goggles. A senior foreign security analyst based in East Timor said Major Reinado, former chief of the country's military police, "could easily disappear into the mountains" if not caught quickly. "And the problem is, there are still plenty of guns unaccounted for up in the mountains," he said.
Major Reinado, who was blamed for some of the worst violence in East Timor earlier this year, was jailed on charges of attempted murder and firearms offences. He was arrested with 20 other men last month over their role in the violence that erupted in and around Dili in April. In Perth last night, Major Reinado's wife, Maria - expecting the couple's fourth child in December - was upset and fearful for her husband's safety. Friends said Mrs Reinado, who has not seen her husband since she fled East Timor's violence with her three children in May, had been hoping for a reunion soon. "He promised he would be home in time for the baby," a tearful friend told The Australian.
The breakout occurred within the New Zealand military's area of operations and came just a week after the UN was given approval to replace the Australian-led mission responsible for keeping law and order. Australia is expected to soon begin gradually withdrawing troops and police officers. Becora prison warden Carlos Sarmento said the prisoners broke down several walls on jail's east wing. He blamed the jailbreak on a shortage of guards, saying many had not returned to their posts after the Dili violence broke out. Last night there were reports of rioting close to the jail, which is in a southeast Dili suburb badly affected by the unrest. Among those on the run were more than a dozen of Major Reinado's closest supporters. Former Falintil independence fighter Oan Kiak, arrested last week for alleged involvement in gun battles with police during the May violence, apparently chose to remain in jail. Major Reinado first came to public prominence when he deserted his military police command with 20 armed followers on May 4, in sympathy with another 600 army rebels. He first fled into the mountains, basing himself near the coffee-growing town of Aileu, 40km southwest of Dili.
In an interview with The Australian in June, Major Reinado said he supported President Xanana Gusmao and was opposed to Dr Alkatiri, who he blamed for the deaths of six protesters allegedly shot by police. This week, three senior police commanders were stood down by the Government of Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta, pending an investigation into their role in fomenting violence. They were police commissioner Paulo Martins, deputy commissioner of operations Ismail Babo and deputy commissioner of administration Lino Soldhana. The escape occurred as an SBS Dateline program raised fresh claims by Dr Alkatiri of Australian involvement in his ouster. (The Australian)
East Timor - Downfall of a Prime Minister
Archives - August 30, 2006 - SBS
Two months back, when East Timor's then Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, was dramatically forced to resign after weeks of violence and chaos, from many quarters, there was an audible sigh of relief. Gone was the man variously described as undemocratic, alleged to have armed a hit squad to eliminate his political opponents and a crypto-bloody-Marxist to boot! Alkatiri, of course, maintains he was the victim of a concerted effort to oust him. Meanwhile, Australia has spent millions of dollars supporting the idea of constitutional democracy in East Timor and has hundreds of troops there maintaining the fragile peace. But, post the violence, there are key strategic and security issues at stake for both countries. Indeed, as we'll see in a moment, new information is coming to light that demands scrutiny. Dateline sent David O'Shea and John Martinkus, two Dateline reporters with a long history of covering East Timor, back to the troubled fledgling nation to our near North.
REPORTERS: David O’Shea and John Martinkus
DAVID O’SHEA: Although he is putting on a brave face, 2006 will go down as a bad year for Rogerio Lobato. Even the cake-maker got his birthday wrong.
ROGERIO LABATO (Translation): The birth date is 25-7-2016.
Following the violence in May, the former interior minister resigned. Tainted by allegations he'd armed a hit squad and under intense pressure, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri was forced to resign one month later. According to Rogerio Lobato, a great injustice has occurred.
ROGERIO LABATO (Translation): The prime minister, who was democratically elected, was shamelessly discredited because of a film.
The film Lobato refers to is the ABC 'Four Corners' program broadcast in June containing the damning hit squad allegations. Lobato has been charged but despite the very public crucifixion of Alkatiri, there have never been any charges laid against him.
MARI ALKATIRI, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: I am fully confident because I have said I have nothing to do with these kinds of things.
MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO, (Translation): This is your last warning young men!
On 23 May, Major Alfredo Reinado fired the first shots of the crisis. He was Australian army-trained and was leading a group of rebel soldiers who had split from the army and, along with some policemen, were now firing on their former colleagues. Reinado insisted that he had fired in self-defence but I was there and I clearly saw and heard him shoot first. The soldiers who were fired on that day said the attack against them came out of the blue.
SOLDIER (Translation): He counted up to seven, I heard him. Seven, yes, I heard that. I didn't hear anything after seven. I only heard gunshots. I thought they were allies so why were they firing at us? As an officer I had to respond.
Curiously, just days before, politician Leandro Isaac, a staunch opponent of prime minister Alkatiri, told me that something big was about to happen, ‘I didn't realise how big it was going to get.’ So why did Major Reinado attack? The former prime minister insists that what happened here at Fatu Ahi was the launch of a premeditated campaign to oust him.
MARI ALKATIRI: I think Alfredo Reinado was instructed to come down to Fatu Ahi and to restart everything with violence because this is the only way they can provoke everything - to start violence to justify everything.
This was the beginning of four days of chaos in the capital, Dili, before the arrival of Australian forces. As a witness to that upheaval, I have come back with colleague John Martinkus, who has covered East Timor for 10 years. Following Reinado's opening volley, the second major attack of the crisis was led by a man called Rai Los. He told 'Four Corners' that he was the leader of the so-called 'hit squad' and was supposed to be killing people on behalf of Alkatiri. Well, how then does he explain this amateur footage? The man that filmed it told Dateline these are Rai Los's men and they were fighting alongside the forces they are meant to be killing. They are all fighting the national army and, by extension, the government of Mari Alkatiri. But Rai Los is adamant he didn't join the forces rebelling against Alkatiri.
RAI LOS, HIT SQUAD LEADER, (Translation): I didn't go there to join them, I went to stop them. I talked to them, I’d been told to stop them by force, but I had other ideas. I wanted to stop them by using negotiation and dialogue.
You would have to say that taking up arms and firing at the army is an unusual method of dialogue. East Timor's Prosecutor-General is still investigating the incident and confirms Rai Los's role in the fighting in Taci Tolu, on the outskirts of Dili.
REPORTER: So it was confirmed that Rai Los was involved in the fighting in Taci Tolu, they led the attack, and they began the shooting?
LONGUINOS: Yes, thank you very much.
Just as Alfredo Reinado had started the battle and then withdrawn, so did Rai Los. All that's left today of this crucial event in May is a pile of empty cartridge shells. Rai Los's claims about his role in the attack raise serious questions about his credibility and his damning allegations against Alkatiri. Over the days that followed it seemed everyone had a gun. And many of them were handed out by this man - Police Commissioner and Alkatiri critic, Paulo Martins. The Commissioner admits to emptying the police armoury and distributing the weapons just before the violence began, a fact confirmed by former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
MARI ALKATIRI: The Police Commander, Paulo Martins, said the weapons were not in storage and they had been allocated to different police units. He was saying one of the units was in Ailieu and in Dili and in Liquica.
By coincidence or otherwise, the anti-Alkatiri forces were concentrated in precisely the areas named by Alkatiri.
REPORTER (Translation): The weapons you sent to Ailieu, where are they now?
PAULO MARTINS, POLICE COMMANDER (Translation): The guns that were transferred from Ailieu are now back in Ailieu.
REPORTER (Translation): Where?
PAULO MARTINS (Translation): The Police Reserve Unit.
It's common knowledge that members of the police reserve unit had joined the rebels, along with many civilians.
PAULO MARTINS (Translation): The fact is that no one has proved that the civilians used police guns.
If that is the case, how did this police weapon end up in the hands of Leandro Isaac? He is a member of East Timor's Parliament and he's carrying a police issue Steyr rifle.
LEANDRO ISAAC, INDEPENDENT MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT (Translation): Because East Timor, especially Dili was in a state of war! WAR! And if I had nuclear bombs, I'd use them.
REPORTER (Translation): Some people might be asking why a member of parliament is using a gun?
LEANDRO ISAAC, (Translation): There's a difference between using and owning.
REPORTER (Translation): And now the gun is?
LEANDRO ISAAC, (Translation): It is back with the owner. I am not the owner.
REPORTER (Translation): Who is the owner?
LEANDRO ISAAC, (Translation): A policeman that was here at the time.
The most horrific incident of the four days was the massacre of unarmed police on 25 May. It was carnage. 9 police were shot dead and 27 were wounded, all of this done by three soldiers, so the story goes. The UN is investigating the incident. We can offer a dramatically different scenario. This footage suggests there were many more than three soldiers firing. One eyewitness we spoke to claims he saw civilians shooting at the police from these palm trees. And this group of armed men, some of them in civilian clothes, were among many unidentified gunmen at the scene. Who were they and does the presence of groups like this cast doubt on the accepted version of events? Dateline was told the UN has video evidence supporting the version we have offered. Was this deadly confrontation part of a pattern to discredit the army and further undermine the prime minister?
With security spiralling out of control in East Timor, Australian troops arrived to more damaging allegations against Alkatiri, which were big news in Australia.
SBS NEWS STORY: East Timor’s Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri has today dismissed a string of serious allegations and repeated his claim that he is being forced from power.
Forces loyal to Mr Alkatiri have also been accused of massacring 60 unarmed protesters and dumping their bodies in a mass grave. Mr Alkatiri also stands accused of trying to kill opposition leader Fernando Araujo.
MARI ALKATIRI: It is just completely false. I think this kind of accusations and allegations is part of the whole plan trying to demonise me but nothing is true, it is completely false.
True or false, Australia apparently took the threat against opposition leader Fernando Araujo very seriously. They flew his wife and son to Darwin on two Black Hawk helicopters from this isolated airport in the south-west of the country. She arrived just in time to make the Australian news bulletins.
MRS ARAUJO: In Australia where you can speak and you can debate and your house will not be burned down and be threatened to be killed.
It's worth noting that neither the death threats nor the allegations of mass graves have ever been proved. While Australia protected Araujo's family, many East Timorese say his Democratic Party, or PD, is actually responsible for coordinating the anti-Alkatiri mobs.
REPORTER: You provide the trucks to bring them in to town. PD is involved in organising the transport to bring these people into town.
FERNANDO ARAUJO, OPPOSITION LEADER: For demonstrations this is the people's right. If they burn house, this is a crime, they should be arrested. It's not my responsibility.
And Araujo had plenty of help stirring up anti-Alkatiri sentiment. Take for instance Rui Lopes - a man made wealthy through his close connection with Kopassus, the notorious Indonesian Special Forces.
RUI LOPES (Translation): We are ready to die, we're ready to defend, and ready to kill.
When Dateline went looking for Rui Lopes, we found he had crossed the border into Indonesia.
JOHN MARTINKUS: It's a shame. Rui Lopes is not at home. He has had lots of meetings with those people and has provided money and logistics to the PD party. And what we wanted to ask him was - where was the money coming from?
FERNANDO ARAUJO: I, er, I never get any money from Rui Lopes. Actually we have the same view that Mari is threatening this country, is destroying this country. We organise the demonstration together.
Another of Araujo's associates and supporters is Nemecio de Carvalho. He's a former leader of one of the most bloodthirsty militia that terrorised Timor during 1999. De Carvalho is under house arrest for his militia activities.
NEMECIO DE CARVALHO: So Rui Lopes, I and other people and, according to me, now most Timorese are against Fretilin because they are undemocratic.
Another influential player in this drama is the Catholic Church. The church was openly opposed to Alkatiri and his government, as this April 2005 letter shows.
CHURCH LETTER: ‘The citizens of this country don't identify with the model that this government wants to impose on Timorese society. It's completely alien and cut off from the roots of our cultural, social and historic realities.’
Both of East Timor's bishops signed it and sent it to the president of parliament, asking that
CHURCH LETTER: ‘they decide on the immediate removal of the current prime minister, Dr Alkatiri and his government, and the appointment of a new prime minister who would immediately form a government.’
The letter was ignored. But the church has apparently been involved in more than letter writing. Reliable sources in the army high command told Dateline that two priests personally urged them to oust Alkatiri. Father Apolinario was one of them.
REPORTER: Is that true?
FATHER APOLINARIO: I can't say anything.
REPORTER: Is it true you went to visit, to talk or not?
Bishop Ricardo da Silva, a co-signatory of the letter, also wasn't to keen to discuss the church's alleged approaches to the army or FFDTL.
BISHOP RICARDO: Not true – people want to extend everything – not true.
REPORTER: Thank you, Bishop.
MARI ALKATIRI: It means what they couldn't do at that time they decided to plan it better and to do it in a different way. I don't think we can really blame the church as an institution.
And there was more. According to top level army sources, in late 2005, armed forces chief Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak and Lt-Colonel Falur Rate Laek were approached by two Timorese leaders accompanied by two foreigners on two separate occasions. The four also asked the army, or FFDTL, to remove Prime Minister Alkatiri. Again the FFDTL refused.
MARI ALKATIRI: I was aware. I was informed by the commanders of the FFDTL of the situation, that they were approached by some Timorese and some foreign nationals, but I was fully aware and confident in the command of the army that I didn't think that it was an issue that could worry me and for me it was nothing.
JOHN MARTINKUS: The two foreign nationals who were involved with approaching the military here to convince them to mount a coup against you, Were they Australian?
MARI ALKATIRI: Even the commanders were not clear on this, if they were Australian or American - between these two. But I still have no clear information from the command if they were Australian or American but surely they were English-speaking.
So who would want to mount a coup in East Timor? And why? Mari Alkatiri says it's simply because he was too independent and threatened Australian interests in the oil and gas fields of the Timor Sea.
MARI ALKATIRI: What I was doing in my term was to defend the interests of my people in having the resources to develop this country, independently. Not to be dependent. I was fully aware we have our right and we still have our right on the Timor Sea and we have to defend it. Not because I am anti-Australian. I like very much Australia as a country, as a nation, as a people. I would never be anti-Australia.
JOHN MARTINKUS: Do you have any evidence that Australia was involved at some level in the effort to seek your resignation?
MARI ALKATIRI: Evidence, no. But the only prime minister in the world that was really "advising me" quote-unquote, to step down, was the Prime Minister of Australia during these days, these difficult days.
John Howard, on the other hand, is far more disposed to Alkatiri's replacement as prime minister Jose Ramos Horta. Just days after being sworn in, new PM Ramos Horta presided over the historic signing of the first oil production sharing contract between the two countries.
JOSE RAMOS HORTA, EAST TIMOR PRIME MINISTER: When you deal with oil and gas and economics, well, you have to be fair and realistic and pragmatic. Australia cannot always be philanthropic with everything it does for East Timor.
I asked Horta's Energy Minister, Jose Texiera, whether he thought East Timor was getting a fair deal in the lucrative oil and gas agreements.
JOSE TEXIERA, ENERGY MINISTER: It's not the ideal outcome but it's the pragmatic outcome – to give us an outcome.
It seems pragmatism has won the day but the former prime minister says he wanted to ensure East Timor had greater control over its natural resources, particularly the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field.
MARI ALKATIRI: What I have been doing up until now is to really get some independent feasibility study of getting the pipeline to Timor Leste and an LNG plant in Timor Leste. And this is very important. What Australia is trying to achieve is having Sunrise sent to Darwin. This is Australia's interests. But my interests can't be always coinciding with Australian interests and vice versa, and this is the reality.
In the midst of the crisis today, there's a media event being staged at President Xanana Gusmao's house. He's taking local journalists on a tour of his much loved garden.
REPORTER: Is gardening one way you can forget the troubles?
PRESIDENT XANANA GUSMAO: Yes.
Xanana Gusmao is the man who holds the greatest moral influence in East Timor and is often portrayed as staying above the political fray, but this murky affair – with its many unanswered questions - has seen him at the very centre of events. In March this year, in a nationally televised address, he responded to the recent split in the country's army, speaking out about discrimination against recruits from the west of the country. Whatever the President's intentions, his words had immediate effect. That very night the first easterner's houses were burned down and the first refugees fled their homes. Many felt that the President had taken sides with East Timorese from the west of the country, who are mostly anti-Alkatiri. And again today he is very proactive. On his front doorstep, literally, two guns and a man who said he got them off the former interior minister.
MAN: (Translation): In the name of the government, they distributed weapons. Coming from the mountains as we do, how can we afford to buy these weapons?
This media event draws an intriguing cast of characters, including Rai Los, whose hit squad allegations brought down the prime minister. Rai Los is warmly received by the President, but as we pointed out earlier, Rai Los attacked the national army, which under the constitution is headed by President Gusmao. Kirsty Sword Gusmao is East Timor's Australian-born first lady. In May she was quoted in the 'Australian' newspaper saying that Alkatiri should resign. Many here regarded her comments as symbolic of Australian meddling.
KRISTY SWORD-GUSMAO, EAST TIMORESE FIRST LADY: There was some rather mischievous reporting going on by the 'Australian' newspaper. I did not call for his resignation. I said there were increasing demands for him to resign but I didn't make any forceful demands for him to resign but I did express an opinion on that issue.
REPORTER: It's been picked up here as meddling Australian intervention in the internal affairs of East Timor.
KIRSTY SWORD: No, it was a misquote.
REPORTER: Some people are suggesting what happened was Australia's first coup. What do you say to that?
XANANA GUSMAO: No, I already told people that we are aware of our own mistakes, our own wrongdoings. We are very aware of this.
REPORTER: So the coup is...?
XANANA GUSMAO: No, no.
REPORTER: Thank you.
Dateline made multiple requests for an extended interview with President Gusmao, but he declined.
NEMECIO DE CARVALHO: He is the boss in the struggle. Now he get nothing. Just a symbolic role according to our constitution.
Whatever his motivations, Nemecio de Carvalho, the former militiaman is prepared to say what many East Timorese now believe but are afraid to spell out - that the President and/or others wanted Alkatiri removed and the only way to achieve it was through drastic means.
NEMECIO DE CARVALHO: There must be a crisis and instability, including war. So he can play in such a situation. Without conflict, without instability, without anarchy, war, maybe he will never get more power.
REPORTER: There are also a lot of people - much of it is whispers - saying the President is behind all this stuff?
KRISTY SWORD-GUSMAO: There are bound to be comments like that made, I can say with absolute confidence, as an insider and someone who has accompanied very closely this whole situation, that it's nothing but a load of codswallop.
Meanwhile, 150,000 East Timorese sit in refugee camps, waiting for their leaders to sort out the mess.
GEORGE NEGUS: The question marks still hanging over our troubled northern neighbour. And with Australia and the East Timorese committed to constitutional democracy in the fledgling nation, Xanana Gusmao as President may find it impossible to remain silent and aloof about these violent events. And in a dramatic, late-breaking development, Alfredo Reinado, the Australian-trained rebel leader David O'Shea was with when he got caught in the crossfire that started the May hostilities, earlier today escaped with 55 other prisoners being held in Dili's Becora jail. Reinado had been arrested and charged with murder and firearm offences.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
JOHN MARTINKUS
Editors
WAYNE LOVE
SCOTT FERGUSSON
Subtitling
ROBYN FALLICK
SILVIA LEMOS
Producer
MIKE CAREY – (SBS)
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