Notícias - 13 de Março de 2007 em inglês

WSWS – 13 March 2007

Australian troops escalate repression in East Timor
By Patrick O’Connor, SEP candidate for Marrickville, NSW (Australia)

The Australian military shot dead five rebel soldiers in East Timor on March 4, during an operation supposedly aimed at capturing former major Alfredo Reinado. The deaths came just over a week after Australian soldiers killed two internally displaced refugees in East Timor’s capital, Dili. The mounting death toll, which comes amid heightened social unrest and growing anti-Australian sentiment, testifies to Canberra’s willingness to step up violence and repression in order to consolidate its neo-colonial occupation.

The Howard government secretly dispatched 100 SAS troops to East Timor on March 3. It remains unclear whether the East Timorese government authorised, or was even informed about, the troop build-up. The elite soldiers were supposedly sent to lead the Reinado operation, but Canberra has not explained why the 800 Australian and 120 New Zealand troops already stationed in the country were not sufficient to arrest the former military commander and his men. There is little doubt that Canberra has seized upon the raid on Reinado’s base as a means of strengthening its grip on East Timor by ramping up troop numbers.

The exact circumstances of the March 4 operation are unclear and many questions remain unanswered. In the middle of the night, scores of heavily armed Australian troops, backed by a platoon of New Zealand soldiers as well as two Black Hawk helicopters and three armoured personnel carriers, attacked Reinado’s base in the central mountain town of Same, south of Dili. Five of his supporters were killed in the ensuing battle, but Reinado and many others escaped into the jungle.

How the former major was able to escape has not been explained. The SAS troops had superior arms and equipment, including night-vision goggles. In the weeks leading up to the operation, Australian forces had extensive surveillance opportunities in Same and had blockaded Reinado’s base for six days before the raid.

Those few media reports that have described the operation raise more questions than they answer. On March 5, the Sydney Morning Herald reported: “The Australian-trained rebel [i.e. Reinado] knew they were coming and had sent at least six phone messages to journalists and diplomats. ‘We are on alert to take any kind of attack,’ he said shortly before the assault.” On March 8, Time stated: “Less than 30 minutes after the gun battle began, the Australians for reasons as yet unknown stopped firing and pulled back, allowing Reinado and his surviving men to escape through the thick rainforest on the western side of the hill.”

There is every possibility that the Australian forces never intended to capture Reinado. After all, the former major has played a highly valuable role for Canberra in the past. In May 2006, Reinado helped provide the necessary pretext for the deployment of Australian troops in East Timor.

The “major” is a highly dubious figure with close ties to the Australian military. He became a fugitive last May after he and his supporters deserted the army and attacked troops loyal to the government of former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. The Howard government used the ensuing unrest as a pretext for dispatching hundreds of Australian troops to the impoverished country and forcing Alkatiri out of office. After the ABC’s “Four Corners” broadcast lurid and completely baseless allegations that Alkatiri had formed a hit squad to murder his opponents, he resigned on June 26 and was succeeded by Canberra’s favoured candidate, Jose Ramos-Horta.

Alkatiri’s crime, as far as the Howard government was concerned, was his attempt to counter Australia’s influence by securing the patronage of China, Portugal, and other rival powers. The Fretilin prime minister had also pressured the Howard government into issuing a number of limited, though significant, concessions on the division of Timor’s oil and gas revenues.

Reinado was feted at the time in the Australian press and, enjoying the patronage of President Gusmao, lived something of a charmed life in East Timor up until his arrest on weapons charges by Portuguese police on July 26. The house Reinado used to store the arms was directly opposite an Australian military base. In an episode which raised further questions regarding Canberra’s collusion, Reinado was somehow able to literally walk out of prison on August 30. He then continued his anti-government campaign from the mountains, accusing Ramos-Horta of being beholden to Fretilin.

Canberra prepares for Timorese elections

The killing of Reinado’s men sparked an immediate response, under conditions where tensions were already high following the fatal shootings of the two men in Dili on February 23. Reinado’s supporters in Dili fought running battles with the predominantly-Portuguese UN police, while gangs of young people armed with sticks and rocks in the capital chanted, “Down with Australia” and erected street barricades by burning car tyres.

A series of media reports has highlighted the level of anti-Australian sentiment among Dili’s criminal gangs, many of which have connections with right-wing anti-government forces tied to the Catholic Church and parliamentary opposition parties. On March 5, about 20 young people attacked the Dili Club, an Australian-owned restaurant and bar frequented by foreigners. Police also dispersed 500 protestors who attempted to demonstrate outside the fortified Australian embassy. The department of foreign affairs has since advised Australian “non-essential personnel” to evacuate the country.

The reasons are not hard to find. The Howard government’s military-led interventions into East Timor in 1999 and 2006 were never driven by “humanitarian” concerns for the country’s people. On the contrary, they were aimed at defending the economic and geo-strategic interests of the Australian ruling elite. Above all, Howard’s concern was to ensure that Australian corporations could continue their plunder of Timor’s multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves by minimising the influence of rival powers, primarily Portugal and China.

Canberra has done nothing to improve the lives of ordinary East Timorese. Poverty and unemployment are endemic, and an estimated 100,000 people (out of a total population of one million) remain classified as “internally displaced”. Recent rice shortages have heightened fears of hunger and malnutrition. The appalling social conditions, combined with the occupying forces’ highly aggressive tactics, have stoked opposition to the Australian-led occupation, particularly among unemployed men in Dili and other urban centres.

Canberra’s response to the growing unrest has been to step up its repression. The killing of Reinado’s five men is undoubtedly meant as a warning, designed to terrorise the population into accepting the ongoing occupation of the tiny “independent” state. Australian forces now enjoy sweeping powers due to a directive issued by President Xanana Gusmao on March 6 authorising foreign police and soldiers to carry out searches and arrests without warrant and to break up any public meetings or gatherings.

Such measures will no doubt be utilised in the lead up to the presidential election scheduled for April 9 and the parliamentary elections due shortly after. Canberra has been conducting a series of behind-the-scenes manoeuvres aimed at securing a favourable outcome. Prime Minister Ramos-Horta has announced his candidacy for president, while President Gusmao intends to become prime minister. Gusmao is currently forging a new political party and hopes to oust Fretilin with the assistance of the existing right-wing opposition parties. The president has an established record of facilitating Australia’s interventions into East Timor, while Ramos-Horta has long standing ties with Canberra. Last month he secured the long-delayed parliamentary ratification of a deal allowing Australia to continue its exploitation of the “Greater Sunrise” oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Great power rivalry

The presidential and parliamentary elections are being held amid intensifying great power rivalry in East Timor, with Canberra becoming increasingly concerned about the expanding economic and diplomatic influence of China.

“China has wooed East Timor’s leaders with all-expenses-paid trips to China, established tentative relations with East Timor’s army, including donating equipment such as tents and uniforms, and has paid for at least six army officers to be trained in China,” an article in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers reported last Saturday. The lengthy piece noted that PetroChina, “one of China’s largest state-owned energy companies”, has financed an oil and gas seismic study in East Timor, and also warned that China could eventually control East Timor’s sea lanes, potentially allowing Beijing to “isolate Australian territorial and military assets”.

The Howard government’s response has been to utilise military force and openly flout the principle of national sovereignty in order to secure Canberra’s dominant position. The recent killings mark a watershed and indicate that the Australian government is prepared to eliminate anyone standing in the way of its neo-colonial strategy, in East Timor and throughout the South Pacific.

The entire political and media establishment in Australia is complicit in the Howard government’s crimes. Despite the current New South Wales state election campaign and a federal election due later this year, none of the parliamentary parties—including Labor, Greens, and Democrats—have raised the East Timorese killings in the media or in parliament. Their silence again demonstrates their complete support for Australia’s occupation of East Timor. The middle class protest organisation Socialist Alliance likewise opposes the demand for the withdrawal of Australian forces, thereby becoming an accomplice of the Howard government’s intervention. The organisations which now make up the Socialist Alliance played a critical political role in facilitating Canberra’s initial military intervention in 1999, when they helped organise “troops in” rallies.

The Socialist Equality Party is the only party contesting the New South Wales election that has raised as a central demand the withdrawal of all Australian forces from East Timor and the South Pacific, as part of our principled opposition to Canberra’s neo-colonial aggression. The SEP opposes the ongoing theft of East Timor’s natural resources and demands the revision of every existing oil and gas deal in accordance with East Timor’s legitimate maritime boundaries. The tiny statelet must be fully compensated for revenue already stolen by Canberra and by Australian oil and gas companies. A massive aid program must also be initiated to lift the Timorese people out of poverty and provide them with decent health, education, and other essential social services.

The SEP calls upon the Australian working class to oppose the Howard government’s crimes in the region and to take up a political struggle against Canberra’s agenda of militarism and war. The working people of Australia and the impoverished masses of the Pacific share a common interest in opposing Canberra’s predatory activities in the region, which are inevitably being accompanied by a wholesale attack on democratic rights at home. We call on all workers, youth, and students to support the Socialist Equality Party and its campaign in the New South Wales state election, and to give serious consideration to joining its ranks.

***

Australian Financial Review - Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Region needs cure not a sticky plaster

Robert McClelland [Robert McClelland is the Australian opposition spokesman on foreign affairs.]

The latest unrest in East Timor is a forceful reminder that the time has now well and truly come for Australia to review its strategy for dealing with failing states in the region.

In recent years we've witnessed a revolving door of military deployments to East Timor because the Howard government has failed to take effective measures to address the underlying social, economic and ethnic pressure that produces civil unrest. Instead it has opted for short-term "Band-Aid" military solutions that sooner or later unravel.

In 1999, Australia deployed about 5000 troops to East Timor as part of the successful Interfet mission. By early 2005, with the Australian troop commitment reduced to about 450 personnel, Australia opposed what would have been a 12-month extension of the UN mandate until May 2006. Shortly thereafter the core mission of the ADF ended. Australia's total commitment was pared back to about 30 defence personnel.

Then, in February last year, 400 East Timorese soldiers deserted their barracks, resulting in violence, destroyed homes and ruined businesses. Australia redeployed more than 1000 troops to deal with the deteriorating security situation and to enforce the rule of law. Many expert commentators were critical of Australia leaving in the first place.

Describing our military deployments as a revolving door reflects a misallocation of strategic priorities as our national security focus keeps on being drawn back to Iraq. Right when we were pulling troops out of Dili in 2005, the government was putting them into al-Muthanna province.

Today, there are about 800 ADF personnel in East Timor. The cost to date to Australian taxpayers for these security and policing operations is well in excess of $3 billion.

Despite this, East Timor remains a social and economic basket case. East Timor now has close to the lowest per capita income in the world. The average life expectancy is only 55.5 years and the adult literacy rate 50 per cent. An estimated 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line and half the people lack safe drinking water.

Successful nation-building in East Timor and the other failing states in our region requires action far more long term and substantial than "Band-Aid" military interventions.

Violent protests, prowling street gangs or constant accusations of government corruption are occurring not just in Dili, but also in the capitals of the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Australia must be prepared to meet these regional security challenges with a much more sophisticated and long-term policy response. Almost total reliance on our armed forces, as impressive as they are, is not enough.

As a matter of urgency, we must undertake broad-scale nation-building within the failing states in our own backyard. For our own national security it is a job that must be done carefully and completely. There is no exit strategy here – this is where we live.

***

Associated Press - Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ramos-Horta says toughest challenge ahead for new government

Dili, East Timor: Jose Ramos-Horta, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping East Timor obtain independence and is now running for president, vowed Tuesday to bring more prosperity to the crisis-wracked nation, but warned that progress would not be easy.

Ramos-Horta was installed as prime minister last year when the tiny country's first post-independence government collapsed following an army mutiny and street violence that killed 37 people and saw the return of peacekeeping troops.

He said in an interview with The Associated Press that grave problems remained, but "not to the extent that some pessimists paint - that this is a failing state or the country is in civil war."

"I think we avoided a civil war," he said.

He said the next five years are likely to be tougher than the first five years of independence "because of the crisis that we have had for almost the last 12 months."

"The people will be less forgiving because they've been waiting for more than five years now for the fruits of independence and ... there is a lot of disagreement with the leadership," he said.

East Timor broke free from 24 years of brutal Indonesian rule in 1999 following a U.N.-sponsored independence ballot. Vengeful Indonesian troops and militiamen killed hundreds of people and torched much of the nation's infrastructure before foreign troops arrived to restore order.

Ramos-Horta was the public face of the East Timorese resistance movement at the United Nations during the Indonesian occupation. He was foreign minister before becoming prime minister in July.

He said the next government would bring increased wealth to the country's 900,000 people, who remain among the poorest in Asia.

"Although we have much more money, we have to deliver much faster," he said, referring to an expected infusion of cash from offshore oil and gas reserves.

Some fear that next month's presidential election could spark fresh violence in the country, which is tense amid an ongoing Australian military operation to capture a fugitive soldier linked to last year's unrest and outbreaks of gang violence.

***

Agence France-Presse - Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Timor fugitive will talk if manhunt halted: aide

A fugitive East Timor rebel being hunted by Australian troops is prepared to negotiate if the military operation against him is halted, one of his aides said Tuesday.

"If they want to enter a dialogue, it is easy. The operation has to stop," the aide, speaking to AFP under cover of anonymity, quoted Alfredo Reinado as saying.

The aide said Reinado was pleased that two bishops were recently appointed as mediators for any future dialogue.

"I am very happy," Reinado said, as quoted by the aide. "The church is an independent organ, and I trust them more that they will be able to take the dialogue forward."

Reinado has been a persistent problem for the government of East Timor, one of the world's newest and poorest independent nations.

It is due to hold a presidential poll next month and some fear Reinado may destabilise the vote.

He has been criticised over his role in violence last year that killed at least 37 people, displaced 150,000 and led to the deployment of international peacekeepers.

Australian troops surrounded Reinado's mountain base in late February and attacked it a few days later, killing four of his armed supporters.

But the renegade soldier eluded the offensive as well as a manhunt launched after the failed attack.

Reinado's base was located in Same, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the capital, Dili, and the aide said the rebel was sorry for the hardship the town's residents had suffered due to the military action.

"I am saddened and my heart cries over what has happened in Same, because innocent people have become the victims," he quoted Reinado as saying.

Reinado's supporters demonstrated in Dili and elsewhere after the military offensive, leading East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao to warn of a security crackdown in a televised address.

The president had given the international force the green light to capture Reinado after accusing him of stealing weapons from police posts on the border with neighbouring Indonesia, which occupied East Timor for 24 years.

***

ABC - Tuesday, March 13, 2007. 6:27pm (AEDT)

I don't want to shoot Australians, E Timor rebel leader says

The most wanted man in East Timor says he has no intention of harming any Australians, even though five of his supporters were killed in an Australian military raid on his hide-out almost two weeks ago.

Major Alfredo Reinado has been on the run since escaping from prison after taking up arms against the government of East Timor in a violent upheaval last year.

He has told a crew from ABC's Foreign Correspondent program, which found him after a two-day trek, that he has no intention of giving himself up to Australian special forces.

"Me, I don't never have a word of surrendering," he said. "I'll surrender to justice, not to anybody, not to any command or any force. I never want to shoot any Australian."

When questioned why he previously fired shots at them, Major Reinado responded, "I defend myself because they are firing at us first."

Major Reinado says he does not want to kill in retaliation.

"The Government was responsible, I don't believe people of Australia order[ed] this and if people of Australia [lost] a loved one, you asked your Government who order[ed] this," he said. "We never want to harm anyone, but we have a right to protect ourselves."

***

Agence France-Presse – March 13, 2007 07:19pm

Timorese rebel vows no surrender

Fugitive East Timorese rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado has vowed never to surrender to Australian soldiers and says he will defend himself if fired upon.

Using contacts based in the hills and jungles around Dili, a team from the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program found their way to Maj Reinado's hideout and interviewed the rebel leader.

Maj Reinado is wanted for leading a band of breakaway soldiers last April and May, when battles between rival security factions degenerated into violence across East Timor.

He was arrested but subsequently escaped and has been on the run ever since, most recently evading Australian efforts to capture him.

Tensions have heightened since March 4, when Australian soldiers attacked his base in the town of Same, killing five of his supporters.

In an interview broadcast on the ABC tonight, Maj Reinado vowed he would never surrender to Australian forces and would defend himself if attacked.

"I don't never have a word of surrendering. I'll surrender to justice, not to any command, any force," he said.

Asked if he would attack Australian soldiers if he were surrounded, Maj Reinado replied: "I never want to shoot any Australian".

When challenged that he had fired at Australians earlier this month, Maj Reinado said: "I defend myself because they are firing at us first".

The rebel leader said he was fighting the East Timorese Government because security forces had shot dead anti-government protesters during the chaos that rocked Dili last year.

"I have to get out there and stop them because this institution belongs to the people, to stand up to defend the people, not to kill the people," he said.

Maj Reinado was once seen as an ally of Australia, where his wife and children live.

He said he doubted whether the Australian public supported the military's attempts to capture him.

"The Government was responsible, I don't believe people of Australia order this," Maj Reinado said. "If people of Australia lost a loved one, you (would) ask your government who order this. We never want to hurt anyone but we have a right to protect ourselves."

The ABC program also reports accusations Australian forces were heavy-handed when they entered the village of Sasaneh searching for Maj Reinado, not long after the failed March 4 attempt to capture him.

"They broke furniture and they told people to put their hands up on their heads. Women and men," one villager said. "They're 10 times worse than Indonesia. The Australian military is no good. In 24 years of Indonesian occupation the Indonesians never did that to our village."

The Australian military has denied destroying any houses and says it has helped villagers repair "very minor damage" to some buildings.

Brigadier Mal Rerden, who commands Australian forces in East Timor, said he was confident his troops would be able to capture Maj Reinado. "We have to, obviously, locate him and we're working very hard to do that and, you know, the nature of the terrain is very rugged," he said. "But we have got very well trained, very well equipped and very well led soldiers involved in the operations and I've got great confidence in them."

***

AKI – 13 March 2007, 09:57 am

East Timor: Renegade Major Says He Will Talk With Government

Dili - Renegade Major Alfredo Alves Reinado is heading to Dili for talks with the government brokered by the Catholic Church. In an interview with AdnKronos International (AKI), the rebel soldier said he is in good health and that he was not injured during the Australian-led raid against him that killed five on 4 March. "I am wearing an Australian uniform and I am heading towards the capital (Dili) for talks facilitated by the Catholic Church. I am very close to Dili," Major Reinado told AKI via phone from an undisclosed location on Tuesday.

"I am in good health and in good spirit. The raid did not affect me," added the rebel, who blamed President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta for his associates’ death, rather than the Australian troops.

"I do not blame the Australian soldiers. I blame those who gave the orders to the soldiers," he said.

The Catholic Church's willingness to mediate was confirmed to AKI by Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva from the diocese of Dili. "The Church is ready to mediate in any dialogue between the government and Major Reinado, if both parties are happy for the Church to be involved," said the bishop, met previously.

However, the meeting is yet to be confirmed by the government.

In the meantime, Commander of the Australian-led International Stabilization Forces (ISF), Brigadier Malcolm Rerden, said the hunt for Major Reinado continues. "The ISF would stand firm and continue their military operation until Alfredo and his followers are captured," Brigadier Rerden told reporters in Dili on Tuesday.

"I am asking Alfredo to avoid further conflict, including the possibility that he may lose his life. He should therefore surrender, with his men, to the national police, the UN police and international forces so that he can go to court and face the charges against him," he added.

Reinado has been on the run since he escaped from jail in East Timor's capital Dili in August along with 50 other inmates. President Xanana Gusmao ordered his arrest after he was accused of raiding a police post and stealing 25 automatic weapons last month.

He had been arrested for his role in the violence that erupted in East Timor after the dismissal of approximately 600 soldiers, who were complaining of ethnic discrimination over promotions last April.

Reinado had abandoned the army on joined them on 4 May, 2006.

The clashes left 37 people dead, forced 155,000 to flee their homes, brought down the government of former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, and resulted in Australian-led peacekeeping troops being deployed in the tiny Southeast Asian nation.

***

AAP – March 13, 2007 04:39pm

Aussie troops 'destroyed Timor homes'

Australia's image in East Timor has suffered further damage with accusations troops searching for fugitive rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado damaged village homes during a night-time raid.

A parish priest from Same, the scene of Australian troops' abortive attempt to capture Reinado on March 4, has protested over a raid four days later at the nearby hamlet of Serema.

Father David Alves Conceicao said villagers had been terrified by the arrival of four Black Hawk helicopters and a troop transport, apparently acting on information they were harbouring the fugitive major, who remains on the run.

"Houses were assaulted and people ordered out in the middle of the night for searches," Father Conceicao said.

"Poor farmers, old people. This is a peaceful population, and this is a problem that will not be resolved by force. If someone who was a friend to us uses force, it will provoke a reaction."

Both the church and local people claim that houses were destroyed during the March 8 raid.

Images of around 10 damaged houses were shown on East Timorese national television last night, and Social Democrat deputy Riak Leman protested in parliament yesterday.

Father Conceicao said the military operations in Same district were continuing on a daily basis.

"It's like living on a battlefield," he said.

Australian force commander Brigadier General Mal Rerden denied houses had been destroyed.

"Our operations in Same were conducted to minimise damage to the civilian population and protect it from Reinado and his group', he said. "There were no houses destroyed as a result of our actions or the helicopters."

Brigadier General Rerden said there had been some "very minor damage to a few houses" and that troops had returned to help villagers with repairs.

He repeated that the only option left to Reinado was surrender, describing him as a fugitive from justice.

"Those who directly support him are breaking the law," he said.

Reinado remains a fugitive and is reported to have a band of around 100 men with him, of whom half are armed. He is said to be wearing Australian army uniform.

Brig. Gen Rerden also gave new details of the initial operation against Reinado, during which Australian troops surrounded his stronghold in Same and killed five of his supporters, but could not stop the rebel leader from escaping.

Asked whether there had been a telephone contact with the fugitive before the operation, Brig. Gen Rerden said: "Reinado was given another opportunity to surrender by verbal contact.

"Until the last moment before the operation started verbal option was given for him to surrender."

Asked whether warning shots were fired before five Reinado associates were shot dead, Brig. Gen Rerden said they were "in a position where they posed an immediate lethal threat to my soldiers.

"The soldiers of the International Stabilisation Force had the right to defend themselves when their lives were threatened."

***

TIME – Tuesday, Mar. 13, 2007

The Raid that Went Wrong

By Rory Callinan

On paper it must have looked like an easy mission. In pursuit were more than 200 well-armed regular and special forces soldiers, with machine guns, tear gas and tracker dogs, and backed up by helicopters and armored personnel carriers. Their objective was to arrest Alfredo Reinado, the former East Timorese military police commander, and about 60 fellow deserters, armed only with assault rifles, who were holed up in a compound on a hilltop in Same village, some 50 km south of Dili.

But the hunters came up empty handed. Reinado and most of his men escaped (see Manhunt: The Raid on Reinado), leaving International Stabilization Force (ISF) troops fruitlessly scouring the heavily forested hills. Meanwhile, the attempt to capture the man many East Timorese see as a resistance hero triggered violent protests in Dili and a wave of hostility toward the ISF.

More than a week after the operation, ISF commanders still refuse to detail what happened, saying an investigation is underway. But one of the rebels who fled with Reinado claims that civilians were killed during the raid, that the rebels were fired on without warning, and that at least one had begged the soldiers not to shoot.

When TIME visited the scene of the raid—a run-down former administrator's House at Same, about 50km south of Dili, which the rebels took over on Feb. 26—Australian soldiers were still manning checkpoints on nearby access roads. Parts of the building's roof had been blown off, apparently by the downdraft from the two Black Hawk helicopters used in the raid, and there were bullet holes in some trees along nearby roads. Two boxes of medical supplies and a generator appeared to have been abandoned by the rebels.

On the weekend of March 10-11, TIME trekked into remote bush to meet with Reinado follower Nelson Galucho, who has been on the run since the raid. Galucho said that three days before the operation, ISF soldiers picked him up in the Emera district and took him to Dili, where he was questioned for two hours about Reinado's operations, weapons and number of followers, then flown back home. He says the soldiers later apologized for detaining him.

Surrounded by edgy bodyguards, Galucho gave his account of the abortive raid. He said his fellow rebel Deolindo Barros had been killed by Australian troops in one of the helicopters hovering over the rebel compound. "Deolindo saw the soldiers and called out don't shoot, but they shot him," Galucho said. "They did not call out a warning or anything." Galucho, whose brother Nikson was wounded in the raid (he is now in custody in Dili), also said three civilians were killed in the raid, but was unable to provide any details or evidence for this.

The ISF has said that five men were killed in the raid. Four were named followers of Reinado (see Manhunt: The Raid on Reinado). The name of the fifth man has not been released, but the ISF says his body was found in thick bush on a hillside near the compound.

Australian soldiers kept Barros' body for two days after the raid; when delivered to the makeshift morgue at Dili's Gido Valadares hospital, it bore the marks of an autopsy—an examination Barros' family say was carried out without their permission. Holes and marks on Barros' clothes suggested he had been wounded in the back of the neck, right buttock and chest. Barros' sister, Francesca da Cruz, speculates that he was hit from behind by bullets fired from a helicopter.

Barros was buried at the weekend in his mountaintop village of Houba, 100 km southeast of Dili. More than 500 people filed into his plain farm cottage to view Barros' body as it lay in an open coffin beneath photographs of him and Reinado. Barros' distraught widow wants the East Timorese and Australian governments to pay for her three children's education. Midway through the funeral, an ISF helicopter flew slowly overhead. Local youths called out, "F__k off, Aussie," but the majority of mourners said they did not hold Australia responsible for Barros' death. Some, however, said the ISF was allowing itself to be used as a tool of the East Timorese government.

Four days after the raid, some two dozen Australian special-forces soldiers blocked an intersection just south of Same and questioned people who passed. The group's commanding officer said they were "there to protect the safety of the people." Local residents said a group of Reinado's men had headed west towards the small mountain town of Alas, about 65 km southwest of Dili, and that troops had been scouring the rugged area on foot and by helicopter.

Galucho told TIME that Reinado was still in hiding but able to communicate with supporters. "He is very sad about what they [the ISF] have done, and the government should have had an open mind and not acted in a way that created a problem," Galucho said. He and the other rebels wanted to negotiate, he said, but would not do so while Australian forces were still in the country: "They may try and kill us, so why would we try and negotiate with them?"

A spokesman for the ISF, Squadron Leader Ivan Benitez, said, "Five armed East Timorese men were killed during the Same operation when they posed an immediate threat to ISF soldiers." He refused to provide any details about the mission or the circumstances of the deaths, or to comment on Galucho's allegation about civilian deaths. In addition to the current ISF investigation into the incident, a United Nations Police investigation is to begin within days.