The death of most-feared rebel leader Alfredo Reinado may have cleared the biggest stumbling block in Timor-Leste's struggle for lasting peace and stability, although the half-island country must pay dearly.

 

Reinado was killed on Monday while attempting to assassin President Jose Ramos-Horta, who is critically wounded and now being treated in Australia.

 

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped a subsequent assault on his motorcade, an attempt which is also blamed on Reinado's group.

 

Reinado, a former army major, led hundreds of renegade soldiers to wage factional clashes that developed into widespread unrest and street fighting, paralyzing the impoverished country in mid-2006.

 

At least 37 people were killed and more than 100,000 others were forced to leave their homes during the unrest.

 

Reinado's anger was initially directed to then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who abruptly sacked some 600 soldiers earlier in 2006.

 

Australian-led international troops and UN police were brought in to restore order and Reinado was detained for crimes linked with the street violence. But he escaped from the jail within a month in August 2006 along with 50 inmates and had since hid out in jungles with a group of followers.

 

With Alkatiri no longer in power, the renegade soldier continued his armed resistance, demanding the departure of Australian troops and that his men be reinstated into the army.

 

The potential danger grew even bigger when his group raided a police post and stole weapons in March 2007, prompting the government to launch a massive manhunt.

 

The Australian-trained soldier rejected calls to surrender, including personal persuasion by President Ramos-Horta, who was sworn in early last year.

 

His group launched sporadic attacks on international troops and continued to become the main source of instability in the country of 1 million people.

 

In November 2007, he threatened to bring his troops to the capital, Dili, unless the government fulfilled his demand. He vowed to trigger unrest that is "worse than the 2006 crisis."

 

Now that he was dead, the government has a unique opportunity to reconcile conflicting factions and bring lasting peace to the country, which has endured violence since factional clashes broke in mid-2006.

 

It is now the best moment to rebuild the army, which lost one-third of its strength with the sacking of 600 soldiers almost two years ago, and resolve internal differences that disintegrate the army with the absence of divisive factors brought by Reinado in the past.

 

It is true that many other issues will contribute to the success in the building of peace and political stability in Timor-Leste, which gained independence only six years ago.

 

Soaring jobless rate and poverty figure are the thorny issues that could trap the tiny country into political riots again.

 

But the difficult task of bringing stability must be much simpler today, compared with the days when unstoppable Reinado was still around.    

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)