Filipinos in Timor Leste are safe - DFA

All the estimated 350 Filipinos in Timor Leste, including the 129 members of the PNP peacekeeping mission there, are safe, Ambassador Leoncio Cardenas reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

“The situation in capital Dili remains calm. The (Philippine) embassy has advised Filipino civilians there to heed the state of emergency regulations, including nighttime curfew, imposed in the aftermath of the assassination attempts on President (Jose) Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister (Xanana) Gusmao," said DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal.

Ramos-Horta, a 58-year-old former journalist and Nobel peace laureate was wounded in a dawn gun battle last Monday at his residence on the outskirts of Dili in which rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed.

Ramos-Horta was airlifted to Darwin, Australia for emergency surgery. He was reported to be on a ventilator, but his doctors at Royal Darwin Hospital said his condition was stable.

Rebel soldiers also targeted the home of Gusmao in coordinated attacks that plunged the tiny nation into fresh crisis following deadly unrest in 2006 that prompted the United Nations to deploy international forces there to restore calm.

Reports said two carloads of people came to Ramos-Horta’s home around 6 a.m. last Monday and attacked him before heading 90 minutes later to Gusmao’s home where he lives with his Australian wife Kirsty Sword and their three young sons.

Gusmao served as East Timor’s president following independence in 2002 until Ramos-Horta was elected last year.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled brutally until the United Nations took charge and the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favor of breaking away in 1999.

Ramos-Horta’s opposition to Indonesian rule and his efforts to bring peace to his homeland earned him the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo. - GMANews.TV » New probe of Pinay technician’s alleged suicide in NY sought - GMANews.TV

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