DILI, East Timor –- On Thursday, rebel soldiers responsible for the attacks on East Timor’s President and Prime Minister last month, alluded military security forces and escaped into the jungles outside the capital city.

While President Jose Ramos-Horta has been recovering in Australia, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped the February assault unharmed, has ordered the police and military to join forces to capture the rebels responsible for the attacks.

For the past several days, joint forces had the rebels surrounded in the jungles of Ermera, a district west of the capital city, Dili. Although Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak threatened to take immediate action against rebel members who refused to surrender, the government held out hope that the rebels would give up peacefully. Major Virgilio dos Anjos Ular said, “They could have been killed if we had wanted to kill them yesterday, but we changed our mind and just called on them to give up.”

Specifically targeted were rebel leader, Gastao Salsinha, and Marcelo Caetano, whom the President named as his shooter on Thursday. Salsinha and Caetano are two of 600 former military members that lost their jobs after a strike in 2006.    

Salsinha is believed to have moved late Wednesday with the help of residents in Ermera. Dos Anjos Ular is urging people to help induce Salsinha to surrender and prevent further violence.

 
For more information, please see: 

Reuters: Asia — East Timor president’s attackers escape siege-army –- 13 March 2008

ABC News Online — East Timor rebel leader delays surrender –- 13 March 2008

Portugal News Online — East Timor rebels stall on handing themselves over — 15 March 2008