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By Heru Andriyanto, Xinhua
JAKARTA: The death of most-feared rebel leader
Alfredo Reinado may have cleared the biggest stumbling block in
Timor-Leste’s struggle for lasting peace and stability, although
the half-island country must pay dearly.
Reinado was killed on Monday last week while
attempting to assassinate President Jose Ramos-Horta, who is
critically wounded and now being treated in Australia.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped an almost
simultaneous assault on his motorcade, an attempt which is also
blamed on Reinado’s group.
Reinado, a former army major, led hundreds of
renegade soldiers to wage factional clashes that developed into
widespread unrest and street fighting, paralyzing the impoverished
country in mid-2006.
At least 37 people were killed and more than
100,000 others were forced to leave their homes during the unrest.
Reinado’s anger was initially directed at then
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who abruptly sacked some 600 soldiers
earlier in 2006.
Australian-led international troops and UN
police were brought in to restore order and Reinado was detained for
crimes linked with the street violence. But he escaped from the jail
within a month in August 2006 along with 50 inmates and had since
hid out in jungles with a group of followers.
With Alkatiri no longer in power, the renegade
soldier continued his armed resistance, demanding the departure of
Australian troops and that his men be reinstated into the army.
The potential danger grew even bigger when his
group raided a police post and stole weapons in March 2007,
prompting the government to launch a massive manhunt.
The Australian-trained soldier rejected calls to
surrender, including personal persuasion by President Ramos-Horta,
who was sworn in early last year.
His group launched sporadic attacks on
international troops and continued to become the main source of
instability in the country of 1 million people.
In November 2007, he threatened to bring his
troops to the capital, Dili, unless the government fulfilled his
demand. He vowed to trigger unrest “worse than the 2006 crisis.”
Now that he is dead, the government has a unique
opportunity to reconcile conflicting factions and bring lasting
peace to the country, which has endured violence since factional
clashes broke in mid-2006.
It is now the best moment to rebuild the army,
which lost one-third of its strength with the sacking of 600
soldiers almost two years ago. In the army. it can now also resolve
internal differences that were produced by Reinado’s divisive
agitations.
Solving many other problems will contribute to
the success of peace-building efforts and political stability in
Timor-Leste, which gained independence only six years ago.
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