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DILI: A fugitive soldier wanted over the coordinated
attacks that nearly killed East Timor’s president is negotiating
the terms of his surrender, the nation’s military chief said
Wednesday.
Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak
said officials had been talking to Gastao Salsinha, who tops the
list of those most wanted over last month’s attacks.
Salsinha, for his part, indicated
to AFP in a brief message that he would emerge from hiding “some
time in the future” to help end the crisis draining the
impoverished half-island nation.
“We are preparing the
conditions for him to come down [from the mountains]. I see that he
has been cooperating well,” Matan Ruak told reporters, referring
to Salsinha, after meeting acting president Fernando de Araujo.
“Make use of this opportunity
that has been provided by God to do something good for yourself, for
the people and for the nation,” he urged the rebels.
Salsinha was the right-hand man
of rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado, who led his group in the
February 11 assaults on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President
Jose Ramos-Horta.
Reinado and one of his men were
killed when they attacked the residence of Ramos-Horta, who was
seriously injured, while Gusmao escaped unharmed from an ambush on
his convoy.
The president, who won the Nobel
peace prize for helping lead East Timor to independence from
Indonesia, is recovering at a hospital in Darwin in northern
Australia, and has said he has forgiven his assailants.
Matan Ruak did not reveal details
of contacts between government officials and the rebels, but said
Salsinha and “a large group of his men” were now in Ermera just
south of the capital, Dili. He also did not say when surrender would
take place.
However, he said authorities are
given until the end of March, when a curfew period expires, to track
down all those wanted in connection with the attempted
assassinations.
In a short telephone text
message, Salsinha told AFP that “some time in the future I will
come down to contribute to peace and stability and bring an end to
the crisis.
“Fighting for justice means we
have to abide by justice,” he added.
Salsinha has repeatedly vowed he
will not “surrender,” arguing that implies defeat, and instead
refers to coming down from the hills.
On Saturday, another of
Reinado’s many lieutenants, Amaro da Silva Susar, surrendered to
authorities, while seven other wanted rebels followed suit the next
day.
Authorities have issued 23 arrest
warrants for renegade soldiers accused of taking part in the
attacks. Operations to capture the soldiers have been conducted by a
joint force of East Timor armed forces and police. Australian-led
international peacekeepers, along with UN forces, have been helping
with the search.
--AFP
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