UN defends Ramos-Horta response time
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Reinforcements: Extra Australian troops started arriving in Dili on Tuesday evening. (AFP Photo: Ed Wray)
As the first additional Australian troops arrive in the capital Dili, the United Nations in East Timor has presented evidence to reject claims its officers left President Jose Ramos-Horta bleeding on the road after he was shot in an attempted assassination yesterday morning.
Planes carrying up to 200 troops and 70 police to help bolster security on the ground started arriving during the evening (Australian time).
The navy ship HMAS Perth had already docked in Dili Harbour.
The UN has come under attack for allegedly leaving Mr Ramos-Horta lying in agony for more than 30 minutes after being shot two or three times in the upper body.
Mr Ramos-Horta was evacuated to Royal Darwin Hospital where he was in a serious but stable condition on Tuesday.
But a senior UN official says police records show UN officers received the first call of the shooting at 6:59am (local time).
He says police arrived at 7:15am, the President was found near a fence at 7:23am and was in an ambulance two minutes later.
Investigations have established there were 10 assailants involved in the attack, including rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was shot dead.
Hard questions
Meanwhile East Timor's military chief has demanded an explanation as to how renegade soldiers were able to reach the homes of the nation's two top leaders to launch the assassination attempts.
Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak said that the military was only responsible for security within the perimeters of President Jose Ramos-Horta's residence, while national police and UN police had jurisdiction for his personal security.
"Given the big number of international forces present in Timor-Leste, in particular in Dili, how is it possible that vehicles transporting armed people have entered the city and executed an approach to the residences of the President and Prime Minister without having been detected?" Brig-Gen Ruak said in a statement he read out at the military headquarters.
"There has been a lack of capacity shown by the international forces who have the primary responsibility for security within Timor-Leste, to foresee, react and prevent these events," he said.
Meanwhile the wife of East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao says armed men surrounded her family's home during yesterday's assasination attempt on her husband.
Prime Minister Gusmao was unhurt when his car was fired upon in a separate attack to the one that seriously wounded President Ramos-Horta.
Mr Gusmao's Australian-born wife Kirsty Sword Gusmao was at home with her children yesterday morning when the attacks occured.
"It was a great sort of panic and confusion and I got the children dressed as quickly as I could and had them lie under the bed, all the while, unsure of exactly how many men we were talking about," she said.
"We only had a very small security contingent."
- ABC/AFP
