East Timor rebel leader won't surrender yet
Updated
East Timor's prosecutor general has revealed that rebel leader Gastao Salsinha was ready to surrender to authorities last Monday, but now wants to wait until President Jose Ramos-Horta returns from Darwin where he is recovering from gunshot wounds.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Speaker: General Longuinhos Monteiro, East Timor's Prosecutor
STEPHANIE MARCH: Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro spent four days in East Timor's mountain district of Ermera trying to get the men responsible for the attacks on President Jose Ramos Horta, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, to surrender.
After long discussions, Longuinhos Monteiro said they came to an agreement where by they would come to Dili and hand themselves along with their weapons over to the authorities.
Things were going according to plan, until last Sunday when the Prosecutor General received a letter from leader of the rebel group Gastao Salsinha.
GENERAL LONGUINHOS MONTEIRO: I got another letter from him, that say he want to postpone till President Ramos Horta is coming back from Darwin.
STEPHANIE MARCH: The President is not expected to return to East Timor for at least another month, and the Prosecutor General believes Gastao Salsinha is being pressured by a
third party to not surrender.
GENERAL LONGUINHOS MONTEIRO: But of course some person is influencing him to postpone or to put demands on the government.
STEPHANIE MARCH: Salsinha claims to be representing 29 men 11 of whom are suspected of being responsible for the attacks on the country's leaders and the rest who are wanted for previous crimes involving dead rebel leader Alfredo Renaido who was killed in the February 11 shoot out at the President's home.
Marcelo Caetano, the man suspected of having shot President Ramos Horta was not among the group preparing to surrender.
The Prosecutor General had agreed to transport the 29 rebels to Dili,
in a convoy from their hide out 3 hours drive south of the capital, along with their weapons contained in a safe box.
Upon arrival at Military Headquarters, Gastao Salsinha would be given a gun from amongst his collection of illegal weapons, to hand over to authorities, as a symbolic gesture of his decision to surrender peacefully.
GENERAL LONGHUINOS MONTEIRO: And he is not changed his mind just because of the weapon procedures that is nonsense, it doesn't matter if he waiting for Ramos Horta coming, the same conditions will apply.
STEPHANIE MARCH: Last week military commander Tauk Matan Ruak said he knew exactly where all the rebels were hiding and they were ready to mount an operation to catch them.
With support from Australian and New Zealand troops, more than 450 East Timorese soldiers are deployed in the west of the country, to monitor the rebels. But reports suggest the military may be losing track of the groups
movements, as it seems one rebel may have managed to cross the border,to Indonesia.
GENERAL LONGUINOS MONTEIRO: One of them, he did but so far from the intelligence information that we receive, from the pressure that he got also from all the sides, of the Indonesian border, he has been pulling over back to East Timor territory, but we need to confirm this.
STEPHANIE MARCH: Authorities are keen to capture the rebels alive, so they can provide vital information about what transpired prior to the February
attacks.
GENERAL LONGHUINOS MONTEIRO: We hope that when Salsinha and his fellows they are coming that we can have a clearer picture of what is going on.
STEPHANIE MARCH: The Prosecutor General says they are investigating links with thousands of people, both in East Timor and abroad, to discover who may have provided support to Alfredo Reinado and his group.
GENERAL LONGUINHOS MONTEIRO: Alfredo might be linked to anyone else, but it does not mean that every one that linked to him give him something. Including we have dozens of dozens of people from Australia as well. We cannot just point the finger at everybody who supported him with some items or materials.
