By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's top military commander onWednesday urged rebel East Timorese soldiers to surrender asAustralian commandos continue hunting them following an attacklast week on the country's leadership.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said elite Australianspecial forces soldiers hoped to arrest followers of rebelleader Alfredo Reinado, killed during a pre-dawn gunbattle inwhich President Jose Ramos-Horta was seriously wounded.
"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,"Houston told a hearing before Australia's upper house Senate.
But under rules of combat covering the near-1,000Australian soldiers helping East Timorese police and soldiers,Houston said Australian-led international forces would shootback if "any individuals choose confrontation".
East Timor's police and military have been merged followingthe attack on Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao tobetter coordinate the hunt for rebels.
Nobel laureate Ramos-Horta, 58, is recovering in hospitalin Australia after being shot twice in the back and chest,undergoing more surgery at the weekend. Gusmao escaped injury.
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.
Houston said the security environment in East Timorfollowing the arrival of 200 Australian fast-reactionreinforcements was now stable but tense.
But after criticism from Dili that Australian peacekeepersand the 1,600-strong United Nations police in the countryfailed to provide warning of last week's attack, Houston saidhis troops were asked last June by Ramos-Horta not to arrestReinado.
"On October12, and significantly, President Horta grantedReinado freedom of movement, and that freedom of movement wascarrying arms," Houston said.
That was despite the fact the rebels posed a threat withhigh-powered automatic rifles, he said.
Houston also responded to criticism that Australian forcesfailed to provide a helicopter to assist Gusmao after hisvehicle convoy came under attack, saying initial requests fromEast Timorese guards had been too vague to assess the threat.
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.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
