East Timor President Ramos Horta returns home
Updated
It's been an emotional day in East Timor, with the president José Ramos Horta finally returning home after more than two months recuperating in Darwin after he was shot twice in the back by armed rebels in February.
Presenter: Anne Barker
Speaker: East Timor's prosecutor general Longuinhos Monteiro; East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta.
BARKER: There hasn't been a mood like this in Dili for months. Even before President Ramos-Horta's plane was visible in the sky shortly before 8am, huge crowds were gathering at Dili's airport and along the 10 kilometre road to town.
On the tarmac, music played, dancers performed and a large crows of officials from the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to diplomats, ministers and Dili's Catholic Bishop gave a near royal welcome as Jose Ramos-Horta stepped down from a private charter plane.
After weeks of surgery and recuperation in Darwin, President Ramos-Horta is in good health and ready to return to work.
His first words in English were to thank the man who filled his shoes while he was in Darwin.
RAMOS-HORTA: I, first on arriving here, I want to thank the interim President, Mr Fernando La Sama de Araujo, for taking the responsibility as interim President in my absence, even though during the election campaign he was my rival. I kept telling the people don't vote him because he's too young, inexperienced.
My apologies (laughter) to him. During these two months he has done a remarkable job.
BARKER: The President was clearly happy to be home but he choked back tears as he remembered the attack on his life by armed rebels, including their new leader Gastao Salsinha.
RAMOS-HORTA: Even though I was shot, I was almost killed, I didn't want Mr Salsinha or any more Timorese to lose their life (emotional). Sorry friends, being a bit emotional.
Too many Timorese have lost their lives, even the President himself.
BARKER: President Ramos-Horta's most scathing words were for the former rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who led the attack on him but was himself shot dead by presidential guards. He questioned why the rebel leader would come to his home uninvited, kick down his bedroom door and plan the attack he did when the President had tried so hard to negotiate with him in previous months, even giving him money for his family.
Jose Ramos-Horta said only last week he believed that Reinado's men had acted alone with no foreign support, but now he believes there were Indonesian elements supporting them.
RAMOS-HORTA: Last year he went to Indonesia with false documents. Who issued him the false documents?
He stayed in a hotel in Jakarta, gave an interview to Metro Television pretending to be inside East Timor. It was a lie. We knew it was done in Jakarta. Who paid for his hotel, for his stay? Who issued him with a false document to enable him to travel to Jakarta?
BARKER: The Indonesian President has promised to help the investigation.
RAMOS-HORTA: In no way it implicate Indonesian Government or the PNI institution. Indonesia is a country of 250-million people. It's impossible for the Government to control every individual who might do things outside Government policy.
BARKER: There are still as many as 16 rebels on the run in East Timor. Only nine are in custody, three are believed to have fled the country. And the Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro has confirmed his investigations have shown the rebel group made dozens of foreign phone calls in the hours and days before the attack, some of which were to Australia and Indonesia.
MONTEIRO: There is hundreds of phone calls was made from the 1st 'til 11 of February. We are not suspecting anyone but we have all the rights to go forward to find out who and who and what, in relation between those subscribed phone numbers and Alfredo Reinado.
