A Real Tragedy

[sleepydumpling]

While I think it's terribly sad that Roy Scheider died, something else happened yesterday that is an absolute travesty.

Dr Jose Ramos Horta, the President of tiny East Timor to the north of Australia, IN THE BACK, in front of his own home, by East Timorese rebels trying to assassinate him.

Dr Ramos Horta is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, passionate campaigner for democracy in his tiny country of East Timor, and one of the most eloquent and intelligent speakers I have ever heard.

At the time he was with East Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao. Gusmao was not injured, and thankfully the presidential security guards shot and killed the leader of the rebel militia, Alfredo Reinado.

Dr Ramos Horta was airlifted by the Australian military to Darwin for emergency surgery, and remains on life support in a stable but critical condition. He faces more surgery to repair the damage to his lungs and it will be at least Thursday before he is brought out of his induced coma if he is well enough.

He has given so much to his country, and is such a humble man, it makes me so angry to hear that he was shot in the back by these scum just wanting to stage a coup to remove the first democracy East Timor have had in decades.

If you'd like to read more about Dr Jose Ramos Horta, here are some links:

http://www.ramos-horta.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ramos_Horta

[roddglenn]

Thanks for that information - I'm just looking at those links

[sleepydumpling]

He's an amazing man Dr Ramos Horta. One of the reasons he was shot was because he doesn't like security, he says it keeps him away from the people.

I just read that Xanana Gusmao actually wasn't with him, that it was a separate incident where the rebels attempted to assassinate him too.

[Scott]

Has he written any books?

I'm going to see if I can find some of his speeches in audio format.

[sleepydumpling]

You can download quite a bit of podcast and vodcast stuff on http://www.ramos-horta.org

And if you search Amazon.com, there are quite a few books both by Dr Ramos-Horta and about him.

[callalilly]

Wow, I remember studying about East Timor when I was in High School. I took a class called Model United Nations. We went to the Hague, Netherlands to debate with schools from all over the world. East Timor was a country we did a lot of studying on. Very sad.