Rebel leader's training 'to help us'
THE three months that rebel East Timorese leader Major Alfredo Reinado spent studying in Australia are likely to help negotiations to resolve the crisis.
Neil James, executive director of the Australian Defence Association, said Major Reinado had undertaken about three months of a year-long defence course in Canberra.
During that time he would have studied the naval component of the course, covering basic staff and command skills, but not the land tactics component.
And given the normal way the course was conducted, Mr James said Major Reinado would have been unlikely to reach the joint operations element, which teaches how the different parts of the defence forces work together.
"The key thing he learned is just general understanding of the Australian Defence Force and Australian culture," he said. "The course he did in Australia is more likely to work in our favour than against us."
Mr James said it was not normal for students to take only part of the year-long course, and he thought it was likely Major Reinado had done this because the rebel leader was at that stage in charge of East Timor's small naval patrol fleet.
A former Australian military trainer said yesterday he believed Major Reinado had no intention of overthrowing the Dili Government and would quickly come to the negotiating table. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hull is a former deputy commandant of the military training centre at Metinaro, east of Dili.
Major Reinado, who now leads 600 disgruntled soldiers who have taken to the hills outside Dili after being sacked for protesting about pay and conditions, trained at the centre.
Colonel Hull said Major Reinado had been identified as a future leader when members of the pro-independence guerilla movement Falantil were formed into a conventional army six years ago. He believed the intelligent and confident "young buck" would be ready to talk.
"Alfredo will come to the negotiating table," Colonel Hull said. "He looks forward to the Australians arriving. There is no doubt he has great respect having spent time here ... he has mixed with Australians, he has seen the quality of the leadership."
Colonel Hull said he and the other Australian trainers had worked hard to ensure they had "the greatest effect" on Major Reinado.
When the Portuguese offered East Timor a patrol boat, Major Reinado was put in charge of the 30-man naval outfit.
Colonel Hull said it was wrong to assume that because he had a strong following, Major Reinado's aim was to overthrow the East Timorese Government.
"He has some very strong leadership qualities and because of his leadership qualities they would follow him, they would believe in him," he said.
"I think if he gets through this all right, there is no reason why he wouldn't be able to, as one of the up-and-comers, be considered for political aspirations.
"People would think he has been trying to overthrow the Government, but that's not true at all. They just feel they haven't been listened to by the military hierarchy, and this is the only way they can bring it up."
Map of Dili
The Australian presence in East Timor so far has been characterised by vigorous patrolling into the capital Dili, with the main goal being to lock down the city in order to separate and concentrate the various conflicting forces in East Timor.  Despite the Australian military being provided strong rules of engagement by the East Timorese government, so far no soldiers have fired their weapons or been fired upon, although they might have been fired over by gangs earlier today.  Outside the Hotel Timor today, where East Timorese Prime Minister Alkatiri was about to hold a press conference, an Australian patrol arrested what appeared to be two gangs about to storm the hotel with the help of reinforcements.  The men numbered around 30, carrying machetes, knifes, spears, slingshots, and arrows.  The Prime Minister claimed that the gangs were attempting a coup d'etat.  Civilian gangs, allegedly provided arms by the East Timorese military, have so far been blamed for much of the violence in Dili.

As the rest of the 1300 strong Australian deployment is expected to arrive in East Timor tomorrow, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said that although his government did foresee the current situation in East Timor, military action would have constituted an invasion until mandated through the United Nations' or East Timorese government's request.  "...People say you should have seen it coming. The answer is yes, I did, but until you are asked, it happens to be an invasion." said Mr Howard.  East Timor requested military assistance from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal on May 23, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta explaining that the government "...couldn't control the situation,"; all four nations responded positively to the request.

Despite one newspaper running the headline "We'll stay till job's done, says PM", the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston has said that he hopes the Australian military will be able to be replaced within a few months by a UN peacekeepers.  In any case, ACM Houston has said that he is believes the Australian presence will stabilise the situation soon, perhaps aided by the good relations that exist between the ADF and the leader of the rebel group, Major Alfredo Reinado.  MAJ Reinado was trained by the ADF for three months and has openly welcomed the arrival of the peacekeeping force, saying that the deployment is the "only solution" in the face of the government's inability to resolve the conflict.

After praising the speed of the deployment, Washington revealed that the US assisted the transport of Australian troops to position in Townsville and Darwin two weeks earlier.

Indonesia has now closed its border to East Timor, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono saying that "besides security reasons, the closure of the border is to prevent the possibility of issues that may worsen the image of Indonesia."