-
Related
The Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers are awaiting briefings on new and possibly dangerous developments in East Timor.
The autopsy showed Timorese rebel soldier Leopoldino Exposto was shot once in the back of the head at "close range" following the February 11 2008 assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos Horta.
Reinado, the 42-year-old army major who led a year-long mutiny against the government, was also shot and killed at Ramos Horta's presidential compound and four bullet entry wounds showed he was also shot at extreme close range.
"There were multiple complex gunshot wound (sic) on the left face surrounding the left eye, base of nose, upper cheek and forehead with laceration and blackening of the skin," Reinado's autopsy said.
Reports of executions by security forces could stoke fresh tensions in the fledgling country, where ethnic tensions are still raw.
Comment is being sought from both Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Phil Goff on how the development might affect local tensions and the national police and defence force deployments in East Timor.
It's understood both Ministers are yet to be briefed on the situation.
East Timor has been unable to achieve stability since its hard-won independence, with the army splitting along regional lines in 2006, triggering violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.
The autopsy said burning and blackening around Reinado's wounds in the eye, neck, chest and hand suggested he had been shot at a distance of less than 30 cms, rather than by guards standing 10 metres away, which is the official version of events.
"Burning and blackening is a feature of very close-range shots, probably from less than a foot away. If you see burning and soot-type burning, it indicates that the barrel of the gun was very close to the skin's surface," David Ranson, of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, told the newspaper.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ramos Horta was critically wounded in the assassination attempt and he spent two months recovering in Australia, where he was flown for life-saving surgery.
The attack also targetted Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped injury.
The autopsies were conducted by forensic pathologist Muhammad Nurul Islam, who wrote that Exposto and Reinado were killed with a high-velocity rifle.
Nurul said Reinado's wounds featured "blackening/burning" especially so in his left eye, where the marks covered a large 10cm x 9cm area, possibly indicating a point-blank shot.
Chest wounds also featured burning and blackening, despite the fact Reinado was wearing a heavy black ammunition vest. Exposto had a "satellite shaped gunshot wound on the back of the head centrally located", the report said. A United Nations report into the assassination attempt has not yet been released, while a criminal investigation by East Timor's prosecutor-general is running late.
Nurul said the question whether Reinado had launched his attack because of a drinking or drug binge would never be answered, as the Dili morgue had no toxicological testing equipment, the newspaper said.
More than 2,500 foreign troops and police remain in the country to help local security forces maintain stability.
