East Timor - Finding Alfredo

Broadcast: 10/04/2007

Reporter: Eric Campbell

Transcript

CAMPBELL: Tonight we bring you an exclusive interview with East Timor's most wanted man. Alfredo Reinado has already battled Australian troops here and he warns he'll fight if he's attacked again.

Foreign combat troops have returned to East Timor. In the hills where Indonesian soldiers once hunted Fretilin guerillas, Australian troops are tracking down a self-styled freedom fighter - so far without success.

BRIGADIER MAL RERDEN: [Cmdr International Stabilisation Force] We have to obviously locate him and we're working very hard to do that and you know the nature of the terrain is... it's very rugged, but we have got very well trained, very well equipped and very well led soldiers involved in the operations and I've got great confidence in them.

CAMPBELL: We took a different route, making contact with supporters of East Timor's most wanted man. For two days we followed them through rivers and rainforest, constantly evading Australian surveillance as they led us towards his jungle hideouts.

Are the Australian's based near here?

FEMALE REINADO SUPPORTER: Yeah just right there.

CAMPBELL: Finally, a coded telephone call led us down a mountain road where Alfredo Reinado emerged from the darkness wearing an Australian army uniform as camouflage.

Major Reinado I presume. Eric Campbell. You're a very hard man to find.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: I don't know. This is the nature of this. But somehow yeah we can meet here.

CAMPBELL: The Australian Army hasn't found you yet.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: I don't know. You not one of them?

CAMPBELL: No not me, definitely not the Australian Army. Yeah have they been pretty close the last few days?

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: We're always close. Always, yeah not far away.

CAMPBELL: But you're still getting away?

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: Yeah.

CAMPBELL: Reinado was once commander of East Timor's Military Police. Now he and his men move camp every night to escape capture. They've been on the run since March 4th when Australian troops attacked his base in the town of Same, killing five people. He and his surviving men escaped into the jungle vowing to never surrender.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: [Fugitive] I don't never have a word of surrendering. I'll surrender to justice not to anybody, not to any command, not to any force.

CAMPBELL: If Australian soldiers do surround you again, will you shoot at them? Will you defend yourself rather than surrender?

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: I never want to shoot any Australian.

CAMPBELL: You did fire at them the other night.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: I defend myself because they are firing at us first.

CAMPBELL: The story of how a respected commander turned into a fugitive begins in the mayhem that rocked East Timor last year. Security forces shot dead anti-government protestors, triggering a wave of riots and social turmoil. Major Reinado blamed the Fretilin-led government, accusing it of plotting to create a dictatorship. After he fought with rival troops, he was charged with murder.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: I was in military. I have to take side. I have to get out there to stop them and to defend the people because this institution belong to the people, stand up to defend the people not to kill the people. So I as the military I had to stand up to stop my institution to take more further action to kill more people. You say I am wrong?

CAMPBELL: Reinado and his men escaped from prison arguing they would never receive a fair trial from Fretilin. They lived openly in towns outside the capital Dili, even meeting with Australian soldiers as he negotiated conditions under which he would turn himself in.

Ina Bradridge a long time friend of Reinado and an adviser to President Xanana Gusmao was the go-between.

INA BRADRIDGE: He's gentle, he love people. He love nature. He love fishing. He's a very nice man. He's different compared to Timorese man. Yeah he's got ego but yeah, but he's very different. He loves his people too much, our people too much.

CAMPBELL: Xanana Gusmao has been strongly critical of the Fretilin-led government. But he says his patience with Reinado ran out last month after he seized automatic weapons from a border post.

PRESIDENT XANANA GUSMAO: He crossed a limit that a State can permit.

CAMPBELL: Reinado insists the border police gave him the weapons because of fears Fretilin was illegally arming its supporters ahead of this year's elections.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: We're just a few guys, go there and ask and they gave me more than we wanted to. The question here, it's more right for me to have this weapon to defend the people rather than to give it to the political party to defend the party's interest.

PRESIDENT XANANA GUSMAO: How can a soldier, a military, living outside the institution, go to a police post and borrow the weapons? The weapons. If he went there to borrow some food from them, to borrow some pencil to write his plea or something, but borrow the weapons? What for? This is something that we cannot accept.

CAMPBELL: The government turned to the Australian-led international stabilisation force to act. Australian troops have been here since May trying to provide security in the wake of the riots. They've now been reinforced with SAS troops to hunt down Reinado.

Many have questioned the President's support for using foreign troops against one of their own.

INA BRADRIDGE: The man is always fair, Xanana is always fair of any decision he made. Anything. But this time, I don't know what, why he make the decision like this. This is really a surprise for the people. I mean people are quite shocked.

CAMPBELL: Ina Bradridge joined us on our trek with Reinado's men. At each stop we were fed and sheltered by local villagers.

So that's how Alfredo could stay out in the bush?

INA BRADRIDGE: Yeah that's how Xanana stay out in the bush for many years, 25 years fight with Indonesia and that's how I stay alive, that's how everyone stays alive. Like if you fight for the people and with the community and the church behind you there's no way, no way even Australian can win us. I promise you.

CAMPBELL: The Australian commander insists most people support the move against Reinado.

BRIGADIER MAL RERDEN: He was operating in a large armed group and denying the people of Same their freedom and their rights and we've stopped him doing that. We've given back the people of Same their freedom.

CAMPBELL: But around Same there were clear signs of anger. Australia's actions since the March 4th attack have also lost hearts and minds.

This is the village of Sasema where the Australian military came a few nights later searching for Reinado. They landed helicopters at 10 pm, which blew off walls and rooves and destroyed the crop field. Then according to the villagers, Australian soldiers abused and mishandled them in ways they'd never even suffered under the Indonesian military.

MAN IN VILLAGE: The worst thing is what the Australians did to the houses and the farms, and hitting the young people, and tying them up. They tied them up and pushed their faces into the ground. They broke furniture and they told people to put their hands up on their heads. Women and men. They're ten times worse than Indonesia. The Australian military is very bad.

CAMPBELL: These men were bound with cord and interrogated.

BRIGADIER MAL RERDEN: Our soldiers are highly trained. They've been conducting their operations in a very professional manner and they have a great deal of understanding of the need for sensitivity and respect for civilians when they're conducting their operations.

CAMPBELL: The sad irony is that Reinado was once seen as a friend of the Australian military. He trained in Australia and his wife and children still live there.

MAJOR ALFREDO REINADO: The government will have responsibility. I don't believe the people of Australia order this and if people of Australia loss of a loved one, you ask your government. We never want to harm anyone but we have a right to protect ourselves.

CAMPBELL: Black Hawk helicopters are continuing to scour the hills as he and his men continue to evade them. Hopes for peace appear as elusive as Reinado himself.