Video: Bronwen Maddox on the East Timor shootings

Democracy in East Timor was under siege last night after coordinated assassination attempts on the President and Prime Minister. Fears of further bloodshed in Asia’s newest nation prompted the dispatch of Australian peacekeepers to the tiny country.

José Ramos-Horta, the President and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was shot three times outside his house in the capital, Dili, and was in a coma after emergency surgery in Australia.

Xanana Gusmão, the Prime Minister and former rebel commander who fought against Indonesian occupation for 20 years, survived unhurt after his car was attacked by gunmen.

Dr Ramos-Horta’s condition was described as “very serious but stable” after he arrived in Darwin, Australia, on an emergency flight to be treated for wounds to the abdomen and chest.

Australia announced that it was sending about 190 army and police reinforcements to East Timor at the request of Mr Gusmão amid fears of reprisal attacks after the President’s guards killed the rebel leader, Alfredo Reinado, during the attack. The Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Perth, with 170 crew, was also diverted to support the peacekeeping mission.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, called for calm in the aftermath of the “brutal and unspeakable attack”. President Bush echoed his condemnation but insisted that the attack would not “derail democracy” in the fledgeling state.

Fighting between factions within the East Timorese security forces in 2006 resulted in the deaths of 37 people, displaced more than 150,000, and led to the collapse of the Government. Last night Mr Gusmão, who described the attacks as an “organised operation”, declared a 48-hour state of emergency. Vincento Gutteres, the Vice-President, has been installed as acting president.

An army spokesman said that two cars carrying rebel soldiers passed Dr Ramos-Horta’s house at 7am and began shooting as he returned home from his regular early-morning walk.

An hour and a half later the back window of Mr Gusmão’s vehicle was shot out and two bullets hit the car’s bonnet as he was driven to his government offices to deal with the crisis. His home also came under automatic gunfire as rebels exchanged fire with bodyguards. Mr Gusmão said he believed that the rebels had been trying to overthrow the Government. “I consider this incident a coup attempt against the State by Reinado, and it failed,” he said.

Dili remained calm as Australian and New Zealand troops and 1,600 United Nations police guarded main roads and government buildings. Stephen Smith, the Australian Foreign Minister, said that he wanted Australian troops to round up Reinado’s followers.

Norman Day, from RMIT University, said: “It’s going to be bad. [Reinado] has a strong following – he’s now [achieved] a sort of Che Guevara status.” East Timor’s leaders fear that the attacks are part of a wider conspiracy to bring down the Government.

Three MPs who met Reinado in the mountains last week reportedly will be asked what he told them when parliament sits today. Reinado’s men fired warning shots when an Australian patrol entered the area during their meeting, forcing the soldiers to retreat. “We want to find out everything that Reinado did and said leading up to the attacks,” one MP said. “There is strong suspicion that Reinado was not acting alone.”

There was also alarm that the attack on Mr Gusmão was apparently led by Gastão Salsinha, the commander of soldiers who were discharged in 2006, prompting the violent upheaval. Salsinha and two carloads of his men escaped and are believed to have fled into the mountains.

The Age newspaper in Melbourne reported that Dr Ramos-Horta and Reinado held a meeting near the capital on Sunday night that ended acrimoniously. The encounter came after several recent meetings during which Dr Ramos-Horta had been trying to persuade the fugitive rebel leader to give himself up.

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