East Timor's Ramos-Horta on the mend

Feb 13, 2008, 7:53 GMT

Sydney - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta may be out of Royal Darwin Hospital in two weeks, his doctors said Wednesday.

They are amazed at the speed of the Nobel laureate and former prime minister's recovery from Monday's assassination attempt outside his house in the East Timor capital Dili.

Ramos-Horta, 58, was flown to Darwin after a botched coup in which rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado was killed.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped uninjured when his car was fired on by renegade soldiers linked to Reinado.

East Timor authorities named 18 people wanted over the failed power grab, including 10 believed responsible for the dawn raid on Ramos-Horta's house.

Doctors said Ramos-Horta was shot twice and may need two or three more rounds of surgery to treat wounds to his upper body.

He underwent emergency surgery at an Australian military hospital in Dili before being put into an induced coma for the one-hour flight to Darwin, where he had three hours of surgery on arrival.

After a further round of surgery Wednesday to patch up a wound to his right lung, doctors said that he should make a full recovery and in six weeks he would achieve a 90-per-cent recovery and within six months he would have completely recovered.

Australia's AAP news agency quoted his doctors as saying his recovery has 'been as good as could be expected' from such serious wounds.

Ramos-Horta is still in an induced coma, and on a ventilator, but doctors said he would breathe normally if they wished him to.

'I expect that he's quite resilient and I expect that recovery would be a full recovery,' hospital general manager Len Notaris said earlier this week. 'He remains in intensive care and will remain there until at least Thursday this week on a ventilator.'

Ramos-Horta shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Carlos Belo for leading the diplomatic campaign for the half-island's freedom.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and its occupation continued until 1999, when Australia led an international force that helped guide East Timor to full independence in 2002.

The tiny country of 1 million people fell into chaos in 2006 after 600 soldiers were sacked from the army and took to the hills. Reinado, who broke out of jail in 2006, was a hero to some of the soldiers who deserted with their guns.

Dili has remained calm since the botched coup. Australia has sent reinforcements that have brought its complement of soldiers to near 1,000 and a state of emergency has been declared.