East Timor: President Jose Ramos-Horta survives assassination attempt

On February 11, 2008, renegade soldiers led by Alfredo Renaido forcibly entered the home of Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize winner. In the moments that followed, Ramos-Horta's security detail opened fire, killing Renaido and another of the soldiers.

Ramos-Horta, who was walking on the beach in the early morning hours, returned to the house. He was shot three times by the soldiers, who then fled.

A simultaneous attack was launched on the convoy of Xanana Gusmao, former independence leader and Prime Minister of East Timor. No injuries were recorded in the attack on Gusmao.

Ramos-Horta narrowly survived. In a critical condition, he was placed in a medically-induced coma and transported to Darwin, Australia for six life-saving surgeries.

As he was recovering in safe house in Darwin, Mary Wald, Chairman of TheCommunity.com, traveled to Darwin at Ramos-Horta's request. Ramos-Horta is the Chairman of the Advisory Board for TheCommunity.com, and a close friend of the organization.

While she was there, Mary helped to edit and place Ramos-Horta's first commentary on the incident, which ran on CNN.com on April 14, 2008.

Warning: include() [function.include]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-01.php) is not within the allowed path(s): (/nfs:/tmp:/usr/local:/etc/apache2/gs-bin) in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 88

Warning: include(/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-01.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: Operation not permitted in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 88

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-01.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/php/includes:/usr/share/php') in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 88

Warning: include() [function.include]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-02.php) is not within the allowed path(s): (/nfs:/tmp:/usr/local:/etc/apache2/gs-bin) in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 91

Warning: include(/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-02.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: Operation not permitted in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 91

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/vhosts/thecommunity.com/httpdocs/publish/highlights/include-right-column-02.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/php/includes:/usr/share/php') in /nfs/c02/h05/mnt/21338/domains/thecommunity.com/html/publish/building-peace/East_Timor_President_Jos_Ramos-Horta_Survives_Assassination_Attempt.php on line 91