FBI team to help East Timor with attack probe

DILI (Reuters) - An FBI team arrived in East Timor onWednesday to help with the investigation into the doubleassassination attempt on the young nation's leaders, the U.S.ambassador to East Timor said.

East Timor's president, Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta,was shot and critically wounded at his home in Dili last weekin an attack by rebel soldiers while Prime Minister XananaGusmao escaped injury in another shooting.

Both attacks are believed to have been carried out byfollowers of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado who was killed duringthe attack on Ramos-Horta.

Ramos-Horta, 58, is recovering in hospital in Australiaafter being shot twice in the back and chest.

Arrest warrants have been issued against 17 peoplesuspected of being involved in the attack while East Timor'spolice and international troops have been hunting for rebelshiding in hills near Dili.

"They are here to work directly for theprosecutor-general," U.S. Ambassador Hans George Klemm saidafter introducing the three FBI officers to the actingpresident, Fernando de Araujo.

"They are actually here for an unlimited period of time andwe are very committed in trying to assist theprosecutor-general to uncover all the facts of the case anddevelop a strong case to bring to the prosecutor as soon aspossible.

"They are highly trained individuals in all areas ofcriminal investigations and forensics but also well-trained inall aspects of bringing the cases to prosecutions."

Earlier, Australia's top military commander urged rebelEast Timorese soldiers to surrender as Australian commandoscontinued hunting them down.

"We would like to bring these people to justice peacefullywithout confrontation, and I encourage any of Reinado's formerfollowers to surrender to the authorities in East Timor," AirChief Marshal Angus Houston told a hearing before Australia'supper house Senate.

Reinado deserted the army in May 2006 to join about 600former soldiers sacked earlier that year amid claims they werediscriminated against because they were from the western partof East Timor.

International peacekeeping forces were sent to theresource-rich but largely impoverished country to halt ethnicfighting and clashes between rival police and the militarywhich broke out following the rebellion.

East Timor gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002after a U.N.-sponsored vote in 1999 marred by violence.Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975. Manythousands of East Timorese died during the brutal occupationthat followed.

(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Canberra; Writing bySugita Katyal; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)