Reinado fired on Aussie troops first: Brigadier

By Jill Jolliffe

Dili, March 15 (AAP) - East Timor's fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado fired on Australian troops before they shot back, killing five of his supporters, Australia's military commander in the country says.

Brigadier Mal Rerden today said Australian troops, who had Reinado surrounded at his mountain base earlier this month, did everything they could to convince him to surrender.

But when the rebels began firing their weapons, the Australians had to make a snap decision, and that was to return fire, Rerden said.

"Reinado's group had used their weapons and were threatening," said the brigadier, who also heads the International Security Forces in East Timor. "In these life and death situations, split second decisions are to be made," he said when asked if his elite troops had any choice but to return fire. "Even with night vision we can't distinguish an arm and a leg at 50 metres, it's not realistic."

A separate source said one of four Black Hawk helicopters used in the raid at the south-coast town of Same was hit by small arms fire and had to land prematurely.

Rerden said his troops had acted entirely within their rules of engagement, and had given Reinado, who escaped, every chance to surrender.

Troops had even used a loud-hailer calling on the rebel and his supporters to surrender.

Rerden described the March 4 raid - which involved four helicopter gunships, armoured cars and scores of heavily-armed SAS troops - as one of "minimal force necessary in the circumstances".

He said the Australian force would co-operate fully with a United Nations police investigation into the Same deaths and had already submitted its own report to the UN and the Timorese government.

Dubbed Operation Astute, the Australian hunt for Reinado is ongoing, with "wanted" posters issued today for the rebel leader and five other men.

Rerden, eager to limit any negative fallout from the Same deaths, has been dedicating some of his time to local press briefings aimed at dispelling what he said were false claims about the Australian operation.

Those false claims included that an unarmed civilian was killed.

Rerden described Reinado's interview this week on the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program as showing "exactly the images I expect of a fugitive - worn, gaunt, lacking food, under stress".

He said there would be no compromises where Reinado was concerned, and that a proposal by his lawyers for his surrender under certain conditions was unacceptable.

The proposal has also been rejected by East Timor's government.

Reinado had only one option - surrender and be jailed – Rerden and UN mission chief Atul Khare told Timorese journalists when they asked if they would take up an offer of mediation by the Catholic Church.

Reinado's lawyers have proposed a surrender based on several conditions.

Under their proposal, the rebel leader would faced a reduced number of charges, including attempted murder and revolt against the state, but excluding illegal arms possession and desertion from the army.

Reinado was a leader in last year's factional fighting among the military and police, which spilled into Dili's streets in violence that killed at least 37 people and sent about 155,000 fleeing to refugee camps.