Dili Out To Trace Rebel's Last Calls
The Age
Tuesday April 15, 2008
REBEL leader Alfredo Reinado made or received 47 Australian telephone calls in the hours before he was shot dead at the home of East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta, investigators have found.
Authorities in Dili want Australian agencies to tell them the names of the telephone subscribers as they focus their inquiries on calls Reinado and his men made before and after the attacks in Dili on February 11. They also want Australian intelligence agencies to send them any telephone conversations they recorded that relate to the attacks.East Timor's Prosecutor-General, Longuinhos Monteiro, who is in charge of the investigation, said yesterday he had been unable to establish the identities of the subscribers in Australia. Earlier he told East Timor's Parliament he had asked the Rudd Government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding so authorities in Australia could pass information to him.A spokesman for Attorney-General Robert McClelland refused to comment. For more than 12 months, Reinado had been hunted or closely monitored by Australian soldiers in East Timor. Often during telephone conversations with journalists, Reinado said he was certain his conversations were being recorded in Australia. Felicia Cabrita, a Portuguese magazine journalist, said she had obtained details of calls made about the time of the attacks by the key people who were involved. One call, she said, was made by one of Reinado's men, called Assanku, to Albino Assis, one of the soldiers providing security at Mr Ramos Horta's house. Mr Ramos Horta told The Age last week that he did not believe that Assis had betrayed him.Ms Cabrita said telephone records showed that until February 28 - two weeks after the attacks - Reinado's co-commander, Gastao Salshinha, and Timorese-Australian woman Angelita Pires were making contact with soldiers who killed Reinado. Ms Pires has admitted she was Reinado's lover but has denied she influenced him before the attacks. Mr Monteiro told Parliament his investigation had identified some people who had influenced Reinado's actions. But he declined to name them. Mr Monteiro said he disagreed with a decision by the Parliament to set up an international commission of inquiry into the attacks, saying it was sufficient for him to conduct a criminal inquiry.Mr Ramos Horta is scheduled to return to a hero's welcome in Dili on Thursday after recovering from serious gunshot wounds in Darwin.
© 2008 The Age
