Plot to kill Xanana foiled
Plot to kill Xanana foiled
DILI, East Timor (AP): United Nations police on Wednesday
arrested three men in connection with a possible assassination
attempt on independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao,
who accused political opponents linked to the Indonesian military
of being behind the alleged plot.
Gusmao spoke shortly after police intervened during a
political gathering to arrest three men trying to push their way
through the crowd toward him.
Officers found two hand grenades in an abandoned house nearby.
The men were not armed at the time of their arrest, authorities
said.
A police commander said they were tipped off about a plot to
kill the man widely expected to become East Timor's first
president when it achieves independence later this year.
Dacosta Sousa, the UN police commissioner in the capital,
Dili, said officers monitored the suspects during the meeting in
a Dili auditorium.
The United Nations, which is administering East Timor as it
moves from Indonesian territory to independence, has accused
hard-line elements within the Indonesian military of organizing
and training militias in an effort to destabilize the nascent
nation.
Indonesia's U.S.-trained special forces brigade, known as
Kopassus, was accused of organizing a number of armed incursions
into East Timor since September 1999, when international
peacekeepers took control of the half-island territory to quell
violence that followed an August 1999 UN-organized referendum on
independence.
Gusmao said later that the three men arrested during the melee
once had close links with the Indonesian army, which occupied
East Timor in 1974 and ruled it as a fiefdom for 24 years.
"I do not say they are now backed by Kopassus or the
Indonesian military. I only present the situation to the East
Timorese people," Gusmao said.
He showed reporters a photo of one of the suspects, identified
as Americo Nascimento, with two Kopassus officers.
In Jakarta, a foreign ministry spokesman said he had no
information about the incident.
"These (accusations) must be proved," said spokesman Sulaiman
Abdulmanan. "They could just be made to damage Indonesia's
image."
Gusmao said the suspects were members of a pro-Indonesia gang
that terrorized East Timor and acted as auxiliaries for the
occupation forces during the 1990s.
Gusmao also played a tape recording of three men discussing
how to kill him in a grenade attack Wednesday morning.
UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity said the
other two men in police custody were former members of the
Indonesian intelligence service.
Sousa said all three had been charged with the burning of two
UN vehicles in Dili last month.
"We have to ask, knowing the background of these people, who
is provoking division among us and who is provoking revolt
against the international community," Gusmao said.
He appeared to be referring to a spate of violent incidents
between the 2,000-strong UN police force -- which consists mainly
of foreigners -- and local youths.
Many East Timorese say they are frustrated by the lack of jobs
and the slow pace of reconstruction. The territory was devastated
by the Indonesian army and militia gangs following a UN-
supervised independence referendum 19 months ago.
After the arrival of international peacekeepers, the
militiamen fled to Indonesian-held West Timor, from which they
have mounted repeated armed incursions into East Timor.
Two UN soldiers and numerous civilians have been killed by the
infiltrators. UN officials have warned that the paramilitaries
may try to disrupt upcoming elections by mounting terrorist
attacks inside the territory.