By Tito Belo
DILI (Reuters) - East Timor police have arrested slainrebel leader Alfredo Reinado's lawyer in connection with lastweek's assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos-Horta, theprosecutor general said on Monday.
The 40-year-old woman with dual East Timorese andAustralian citizenship was arrested in Dili on Sunday.Prosecutors did not give any more details.
Separately, police said more 200 people had been detainedfor breaking emergency laws imposed after the assassinationattempt last Monday.
Ramos-Horta, 58, was critically wounded by gunfire fromrebel soldiers, while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escapedunhurt in a separate attack, which some analysts said couldplunge the fragile Southeast Asian nation into fresh turmoil.
Police along with East Timor's army and internationalforces are conducting operations against rebels believed to beinvolved in the attacks in which Reinado was also killed.
"More than 200 people were detained by police forinvestigation purposes. These people did not follow the stateregulation and were walking around the city at night," policeoperations commander Mateus Fernandes told Reuters.
Meetings and protests are banned under the emergency, andall citizens must stay home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
East Timor's prosecutor general has issued arrest warrantsagainst 17 people suspected of involvement in the attacks onRamos-Horta and Gusmao.
A confidant of Reinado told Reuters the rebel leader mighthave wanted to kidnap the president and kill the prime ministerin a bid to oust foreign troops and force a snap election.
Asia's youngest nation has been unable to achieve stabilitysince hard-won independence. The army tore apart along regionallines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggeringfactional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 fromtheir homes.
Foreign troops were needed to restore order in the formerPortuguese colony of about a 1 million people, which gainedfull independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a U.N.-sponsoredvote in 1999 that was marred by violence.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 andmany thousands of East Timorese died during a brutaloccupation.
People in Dili, which has been calm since the attacks, saidthey were unhappy with the curfew because it affected smallbusinesses.
"I think the government has dramatised the situation. It'sso calm in Dili and the country, but they have not pulled backthe state of emergency," said Joao Pinto, a shopkeeper in Dili.
"It's very hard for us to do our business at night becauseour customers always come at night."
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
