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Ramos-Horta recounts how he survived shooting
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Thu, Mar 20, 2008
The Straits Times
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DARWIN - TIMOR Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta spoke for the first time yesterday about the assassination attempt on his life and called for peace in his nation, as he left hospital after five weeks of treatment.
'I remember every detail from the moment I was shot,' said the thin and unshaven leader about the attack last month that left him critically wounded.
He was discharged yesterday from the Royal Darwin Hospital, where he had been operated on several times after being shot by rebels in Timor Leste's capital Dili.
He was ambushed outside his home during an early morning walk on Feb 11 and shot at several times. Rebel troop leader Alfredo Reinado, who led the attack, was shot and killed by presidential guards.
| Mr Ramos-Horta recalled bleeding heavily and being fully conscious after the shooting as he was taken to an Australian medical centre in Dili in 'a very old battered ambulance' that did not have a paramedic.
Fortunately, he said, a Portuguese special police unit came by with a paramedic, who jumped into the ambulance to give him first aid.
'I remember everything... on the way to the (Dili) heliport I fell off the chair a few times because there were no (seat) belts. I remember even though I was bleeding, I was holding on tight,' he said.
'And I was telling the driver - go slow. But maybe he was wise, because it was only a matter of minutes' before I arrived at the military medical centre, he added.
Mr Ramos-Horta also said he would be returning to Timor Leste in a few weeks and called for peace in his small country.
'My message to my people is please forgo violence and hatred with weapons, machetes, with arson - we only destroy each other and the country.'
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao had also come under attack in a separate incident, but escaped unharmed.
The attacks underscored Timor Leste's volatility six years after it declared independence following decades of rule by Indonesia and a period of United Nations administration.
The army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, after about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.
Foreign troops were sent to restore order in the former Portuguese colony of about one million.
REUTERS
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