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Australia's Downer Sees Rebel's Death Good for Timor Stability

Posted on: Monday, 11 February 2008, 06:00 CST

Alexander Downer, Australian foreign minister for 11 years until the November election and a close friend of East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, sees the death of rebel Alfredo Reinado as "a good thing for the stability of East Timor", telling Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio:

"We have, Australia, for a long time been trying to track down Maj Reinado. And Ramos-Horta as the president and Xanana Gusmao as the prime minister decided that they didn't want the hunt to continue and they tried to negotiate an agreement.

"I've always thought that Maj Reinado was a pretty dangerous person, very unstable, has only a small amount of support in East Timor. I don't think the amount of support he has should be exaggerated. And it looks as though - and from what I've heard from people in East Timor today it sounds as though - this was an attempt by Maj Reinado to institute a coup, but obviously bungled.

"So the fact that Maj Reinado is now off the scene, not to wish anyone their death, but the fact that he is off the scene altogether will be a good thing for the stability of East Timor."

Asked if Ramos-Horta had ever talked of fearing for his safety, Downer replied:

"Well, he often talked about fearing for his safety. I mean, a lot of people in East Timor over the years have been after Jose Ramos-Horta. He has a lot of friends and a lot of supporters, including me, and a lot in East Timor, but he has a lot of enemies as well. Look, he tried to negotiate with Maj Reinado."

Asked if he thought Ramos-Horta had underestimated Reinado, Downer replied:

"I think in the end it's hard to know how else Ramos-Horta could have dealt with Maj Reinado other than through the continuation of the SAS operation to try to track him down and detain him. There was always some worry amongst the East Timorese that if he were detained a lot of people would be killed in the process, that there could be ramifications in other parts of the country and that in the interests of the stability of the country it would be better to try to negotiate an agreement with him. But the honest truth there is that negotiating an agreement with somebody like Maj Reinado was probably never going to happen."

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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