Word: reinado
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Dates: during 2006-2006
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...Reinado's decision took the fighting to a new and bloodier level. By then some 20,000 residents had fled Dili, fearing a repeat of the carnage that left 1,500 dead following East Timor's vote for independence seven years ago. The rebels refused government demands to surrender, calling instead for the Army itself to disarm, and for an investigation into their grievances. As street gangs fought running battles over east-west island rivalries through the suburbs of Becora and Fatuahi, the rebels launched attacks against the military headquarters at Tasi Tolu, 6 km from Dili. The civilian government...
Strolling the ramparts of the mountaintop pousada (inn) in his Army-issue shorts and thongs, rebel commander Alfredo Reinado is directing an effort to besiege Dili. Mobile phone glued to his ear, he mutters orders to subordinates 45 km away, who are fighting to recover the body of a fallen companion. "I want to see the battle," he says, "but my men will not let me. They are worried for my safety...
...former head of East Timor's military police, Reinado, 39, is to some his country's tormentor and to others its best hope. It's now nearly four weeks since he gathered 28 of his most loyal men and their weapons and vehicles and quit the capital. Disgusted by the government's use of the Army to crush a protest by striking soldiers, he vowed not to return until the government promised an official inquiry. For two weeks he and his soldiers sat and waited in Aileu. Then, last Monday, he went to the hills east of Dili to investigate...
...called out to [the troops] not to come any closer so we can talk," Reinado says. "They don't stop. So I give them a countdown or I shoot. They keep coming, so I shoot." Outnumbered and outgunned, he and eight of his men fought for nine hours before managing to withdraw into the steep hills, beyond the reach of government forces. One man was badly wounded, and died on the way back to Aileu...
...Since that day, Reinado has been the invisible but devastatingly effective director of East Timor's rebel forces. Holed up in his eyrie at Maubisse, he has welded a bunch of former police, disgruntled soldiers and youth into a ragtag militia with one thing in common[EM]their origins in the country's west...