E. Timorese rebel leader buried without incident
E. Timorese rebel leader buried without incident
JAKARTA (JP): David Alex, the separatist rebel who died in
hospital Wednesday after a shootout in Baucau, has been buried in
Dili without incident, reports said yesterday.
Local military chief Col. Slamat Sidabutar said that Alex was
buried at about 4 p.m. Thursday in a public cemetery in an
eastern suburb of the capital Dili.
The burial was led by Catholic priest Amandus Biri and
attended by Alex's relatives, Antara quoted Sidabutar as saying.
Alex died of blood loss in Dili's Wira Husada Hospital at
about 7 p.m. Wednesday after intensive care treatment, Sidabutar
said.
Alex was shot and critically wounded Wednesday morning in a
raid on his cave hideout near Baucau. Five other separatist
rebels in the hideout were captured alive.
The military had identified Alex as the deputy commander of
the Fretilin separatist movement's armed wing. He reportedly
operated in the rebels' Region II, covering Viqueque, Lautem and
Manatuto.
His group is believed responsible for the recent wave of
attacks on military and civilian targets in various regencies
East Timor.
Sidabutar said the authorities had confiscated the rebels'
documents and amulets.
East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976 but the
United Nations still recognizes Portugal as the territory's
legitimate administrator.
An estimated 200 poorly armed Fretilin separatists are waging
a small rebellion.
Still alive?
AFP reported from Sydney yesterday that separatist sources in
Australia believed that Alex was still alive despite reports that
he had been killed.
Quoting sources at Darwin's East Timor International Support
Centre, the news agency said that contrary to Indonesian claims,
Alex and three others were captured uninjured and taken in
military vehicles to Baucau where they are likely to still be
alive.
"We have good reason to believe that the Baucau commander of
the East Timor armed resistance, David Alex, is still alive
contrary to claims by the Indonesian Armed Forces that he was
killed in battle," centre spokesman Donny Inbaraj said.
Inbaraj said his group had spoken to witnesses who said that
Alex and three others -- Jose Antonio Belo, Manuel Loke Matan and
one identified only as Gil -- had been intercepted by a patrol
Wednesday morning while searching for medicine in Kaibada near
Baucau. Alex, who was sick, had needed the medicine. (pan)