You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Southeast Asia
East Timor leader in critical condition
2008-02-11
OK, time for me to expand my sphere of attention. Can anyone provide a quick description of what this sttupid rebellion is all about? Are the "rebels" Christians or Lutherans? Is East Timor to Indonesia as Taiwan is to China?
Wikipedia entry here. And the BBC's overview is succinct and informative. Quick summary: East Timor is heavily Roman Catholic, got independence in 2002 despite militias that wanted them to be part of Indonesia. Poor country, large oil/natural gas deposits just off the coast.
Rebel soldiers shot and critically wounded East Timor's president and opened fire on the prime minister Monday in a failed coup attempt in the recently independent nation. A top rebel leader was killed during one of the attacks.

President Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace laureate, was injured in the stomach. He was flown to a hospital in Australia in an induced coma, breathing through a ventilator, a spokesman for the company that airlifted him out of East Timor said. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped an attack on his motorcade unhurt.

Army spokesman Maj. Domingos da Camara said 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. "I consider this incident a coup attempt against the state by Reinado and it failed," Gusmao said. He called it a well-planned operation intended to "paralyze the government and create instability."
Posted by:gorb

00:00