East Timor president discharged from hospital
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was discharged Tuesday from an Australian hospital five weeks after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.
Ramos-Horta said he expects to remain in Australia for a few more weeks for therapy.
The president, who was treated at two Darwin hospitals following the February 11 shooting, gave the doctors and nurses at Royal Adelaide Hospital a gift of Timorese coffee before leaving Tuesday.
It’s the best coffee in the world, said the president, looking thin and holding back tears as he expressed his gratitude. I would like to thank you all for your care and patience.
Ramos-Horta recalled bleeding heavily and being fully conscious after the shooting as he was taken to an Australian medical center in Dili. I remember every detail from the moment I was shot. … On the way to the heliport I fell off the chair a few times because there were no belts.
Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Foster said Ramos-Horta would receive further treatment from the hospital.
He needs some physiotherapy and doctors would like to keep an eye on him, she said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been treated in Darwin since he was shot by rebel troops outside his home in East Timor’s capital, Dili. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from an ambush on his motorcade the same day.
They were ambushed by East Timorese rebel troops whose leader, Alfredo Reinado, was shot and killed by presidential guards during the attack.
The attacks underscored East Timor’s volatility six years after it declared independence following decades of harsh rule by neighboring Indonesia and a period of U.N. administration.
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