PRESIDENT CONDEMNS THE SHOOTING OF RAMOS HORTA
Antara News Agency - February 11, 2008Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has condemned the shooting of his Timor Leste counterpart, Jose Ramos Horta, by rebel soldiers.
"The shooting of Timor Leste`s president and prime minister is a terrible, unconstitutional attack against democracy and an attempt to disturb the country`s present government," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal quoted Yudhoyono as saying at the presidential office here on Monday.
Timor Leste President and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta was shot in the stomach at his home in Dili on Monday while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped injury in another attack.
Dino said Yudhoyono continued to keep abreast of developments following the attacks on Timor Leste`s two most famous independence figures in which the rebel leader was killed.
"President Yudhoyono prayed for Horta`s recovery from the bullet wound," Dino said, adding that Yudhoyono would continue to support Timor Leste`s government in upholding and defending democracy.
Dino said the situation in Dili was calm and at about 10.30 a.m. local time a meeting between Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and the United Nations Mission in Timor Leste (Unmit) was held to draw up a special program in response to the incident.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported from Dili that following the assassination attempt, Horta was in stable condition after being operated on by an Australian military medical team.
However, Horta would be flown to an Australian hospital in the city of Darwin for treatment.
James Dunn, a former adviser to Ramos-Horta and former Australian consul in Dili, told Australian radio the president had been shot twice. One shot had passed through Ramos-Horta`s back and into his stomach, he said.
"He was able to talk and we don`t know how far is the damage," Ramos-Horta`s sister-in-law, Maria Gabriella Carrascalao, told Australian radio.
Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the assault and an East Timor soldier was also seriously wounded, military spokesman Domingos da Camara said.
The military said attackers in two cars were involved in the early morning raid on the president`s isolated home.
International security forces placed a cordon around the house and were patrolling Dili`s streets to prevent further violence.(*)
Source: Antara News Agency - www.antara.co.id