Xanana Gusmao. Photo / Mark Mitchell
SYDNEY - Australia failed to send a helicopter to help East Timor prime minister Xanana Gusmao when he was attacked last week, says one of his closest advisers.
Joaquim Fonseca says Mr Gusmao and his driver, who ran into the jungle after being attacked last Monday, found their
way to a road where they hailed a local minibus when a helicopter failed to arrive, Fairfax newspapers report.
A spokesman for the Australian Defence Force, Andrew Nikolic, defended the military's response, saying Australian soldiers directed their response to Mr Gusmao's house in the mountains above Dili where, it later became known, his wife, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, was hiding with their three children under a bed.
Ms Sword-Gusmao has told journalists Portuguese police arrived at the house and took them to safety.
Brigadier Nikolic said checks of logs of the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force show an Australian helicopter was flying over Mr Gusmao's home within 30 minutes of their becoming aware of gunmen in the area.
An infantry platoon was sent to the house and reported the situation was calm 56 minutes after Mr Fonseca's call, he said.
But Mr Fonseca said he was unhappy a chopper was not immediately sent to Mr Gusmao in the jungle.
A spokeswoman for the UN mission in East Timor said Mr Fonseca's complaints would be included in a UN investigation into all aspects of security for the country's leaders, Fairfax said.
His criticisms will fuel dissatisfaction with the presence of the Australian soldiers in the country at a time when Australian SAS commandos are leading the hunt for the rebels responsible for the attempted assassinations of Mr Gusmao and the president, Jose Ramos-Horta, the paper said.
Mr Ramos-Horta remains in Royal Darwin Hospital and is expected to undergo further surgery for up to three bullet wounds.
-AAP
