East Timor in 2008: Year of Reconstruction

The near-fatal shooting of East Timor's president, Jose Ramos-Horta, on 11 February 2008, by members of renegade Major Alfredo Reinado's gang, and the death of Reinado himself, broke a deadlock in East Timorese politics that had threatened to keep the country in a state of perpetual crisis. Prior to this incident, most observers had noted that the recently elected Parliamentary Majority Alliance government of Xanana Gusmao needed to address two critical issues. The first issue was returning the remaining tens of thousands of internally displaced persons to their homes. The second, which allowed the first to happen, was resolving the issue of the "petitioners", soldiers who had deserted the army in 2006, sparking an internal conflict that almost led to state collapse. Without having the "petitioners" problem resolved, the country's internally displaced persons (IDPs) claimed they felt too insecure to return to their homes.