Resentment and political factionalism run deep in East Timor, the young nation that won independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a prolonged and bitter struggle. The assassination attempts on President José Ramos-Horta and prime minister Xanana Gusmao were mounted by groups of renegade troops sacked from the armed forces two years ago after a mutiny. Their leader Alfredo Reinado was killed and Dr Ramos-Horta is fighting for his life in an Australian hospital. This is a bad setback for East Timor, which has recently been making some political progress despite its grave infrastructural and economic problems.
Reinado was among 600 mutinous soldiers - one third of the army - dismissed by the government in 2006 in a move that triggered battles between security forces that later spilled over into faction fighting and ethnic unrest. At least 37 people were killed and more than 150,000 people - one-eighth of the population - were forced from their homes, which also led to the resignation of the country's first post-independence prime minister. Reinado was arrested but escaped from jail after several months. He was charged with murder in connection with the 2006 violence, but had remained in hiding with supporters and had threatened armed insurrection against the government. Recently Dr Ramos-Horta made several unsuccessful attempts to arrange a mediation, the collapse of which led to the attacks.
They must be regarded as an attempted coup against the legitimate government and an assault on legal authority. Both these elements of East Timor's political culture have been painstakingly constructed since independence was achieved. Last year Dr Ramos-Horta, a former foreign minister and prime minister himself, was elected president. He asked his political ally and outgoing president Xanana Gusmao to form a government, which he managed to do. Political resentment of these two former exiles had been plentifully in evidence during the previous government led by the Fretelin party under Mari Alkatiri, who ruled as if he was solely responsible for achieving independence.
After the mutiny, order was restored only with the help of a new international force led by Australian troops, working with others from New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal. They will now be reinforced. Before independence there was also a large-scale United Nations operation aimed at encouraging political and economic development. Despite its potential oil and coffee wealth East Timor has a 50 per cent jobless rate which has undermined many of the hopes its people had for a new future. Foreign aid programmes, Ireland's prominently among them, have endeavoured to create some of the conditions for that development. Politically the new government had recently made some progress on budgetary affairs and ministerial organisation. These attacks will endanger that, especially if they provoke another round of destructive inter-communal conflict.