Ó pra eles a fingirem que não sabem onde ele está...

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Source: AAP

Clashes break out in Dili during fugitive hunt
From correspondents in Dili
September 01, 2006

TWO days after their audacious escape from an East Timor jail, rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and 56 other inmates remain on the lose, amid renewed violence in the capital.

As international peacekeepers put down new gang violence in Dili, Australian and other foreign police were no closer today to recapturing Reinado and his supporters.

It is believed the former military police commander has retreated into the mountains behind Dili, leaving police to answer embarrassing questions about how he was able to simply walk out of Dili's Becora jail on Wednesday.

Reinado has been blamed for some of the worst violence that rocked East Timor in May, and it's feared he will rearm his supporters and threaten the relative calm peacekeepers have maintained since then.

The commander of the Australian Federal Police contingent in Dili, Steve Lancaster, offered few details today about Wednesday's escape, which has sparked a blame game about who is responsible.

“It appears on facts available to me at this stage it was opportunistic at that time, and that's probably as far as I'm prepared to go,” Cmdr Lancaster told the ABC today.

He said: “there was force used in the initial action” at the jail, allowing some inmates to flee.

“Prison guards have been interviewed at this stage and nearly all the civilian witnesses that were around the area have been interviewed. It's now a case of putting that information all together and working out where or how this event actually took place.”

With that still unknown, the political fingerpointing began today.

East Timorese Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta said an Australian refusal to provide security at Becora prison had allowed Reinado and the others to escape.

But Australia's Prime Minister John Howard dismissed the claim, saying his advice was that it was not the role of the military to station guards at the jail.

“I am very concerned that these people escaped but I am quite certain the Australian Defence Force has done the right thing.”

PRÉMIO A MENTIRA DO DIA:

Police hunting for Reinado and the other inmates have made contact with their relatives and known associates, broadening their inquiries beyond Dili to centres across the country.

They want him back in custody before he has a chance to foment new unrest, but it seems he's already begun to rebuild his support base.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that he had circulated a letter within hours of his escape, urging East Timorese to rise up and join him in a “people power” revolution.

“All of us know that this government is illegal because it has not followed the democratic process,” the Herald quoted the letter as saying.

People should “not be afraid to go into the streets to protest together because we have the right to remove the Government”.

But in a video statement obtained by Reuters Television yesterday, Reinado insisted he did not want to stage a new revolt.

“I have escaped from Dili not to revolt but because the judicial system in Dili is not good enough. But I will account for my action and answer any charges against me when the system has been improved,” he said.

Meanwhile, gangs armed with stones and machetes clashed in Dili today leaving at least eight injured, hospital officials said.

The fighting broke out after a gang attacked a refugee camp in Dili with stones, witnesses said.

International security forces arrived soon after to restore order.

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