DUBLIN - The reported death of the East Timor rebels' second-in-command has been disputed by the expatriate resistance, which strongly suggested yesterday that Mr David Alex and three comrades were being tortured, David Shanks reports.
Resistance sources in Australia said shots were fired by an Indonesian patrol which captured the four on Wednesday. "But a witness reported to us that none of them was injured." In a statement the resistance "denounced" an Indonesian claim that the commander died while receiving medical treatment for two large bullet wounds sustained during a firefight.
From Chile, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr Jose Ramos Horta, said the death of Mr Alex, "if true", was a great loss but "the torch of national struggle" would pass to another.
