The president of Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) was seriously ill in an Australian hospital today after being shot during a failed coup.
The attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta and another against his prime minister were a striking reminder of the bitter rivalries beneath the surface in Asia's newest nation and could trigger more unrest and political turmoil in coming days, analysts said.
Neighbouring Australia immediately announced it would send more police and troops to help keep peace in the desperately poor country, which won independence from Indonesia in 2002.
President Ramos-Horta, who won a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent resistance to the decades-long Indonesian occupation, was shot in the chest and stomach in the attack on his home in the seaside capital of Dili by gunmen who arrived in two cars around dawn.
Mr Ramos-Horta is in a stable condition following the assassination attempt
The 58-year-old was operated on in Timor-Leste before being sedated, attached to a ventilator to help him breath and then airlifted to a hospital in the northern Australian city of Darwin.
Dr Len Notaros, the general manager of Royal Darwin Hospital, said Mr Ramos-Horta had serious chest injuries and an abdominal injury and medics were concerned the president still had bullet fragments in his body.
Notaros said the next two or three days would be crucial, but that "we would be hopeful of a very good recovery."
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unhurt after a separate rebel attack on his motorcade an hour after the president was targeted.
Fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and one of his men were killed in the attack on the home of Ramos-Horta, while one of the president's guards also died, an army spokesman said.
"I consider this incident a coup attempt against the state by Reinado and it failed," Mr Gusmao said.
He called it a well-planned operation intended to paralyse the government and create instability."
"This government won't fall because of this," he said.
Reinado was among 600 mutinous soldiers dismissed by the government in 2006 in a move that triggered gunbattles between security forces that later spilled over into gang fighting and ethnic unrest.
At least 37 people were killed and more than 150,000 people forced from their homes in the unrest, which also led to the resignation of the country's first post-independence prime minister.
AP
