EAST Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta is "out of danger" and "recovering" following treatment in Australia after being shot in the stomach by rebels, the speaker of the country's parliament said.
"According to the information we have, the president has been operated on and the bullet that was in his lung has been removed," Fernando de Araujo said while on a visit to Lisbon.
"He is in the process of recovery and is out of danger," he said following talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
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Reports are coming out that UN forces stood by and did nothing while Horta was wounded, 300 m away.
The UN has had a particularly bad run for many years. Ineffective in Somalia, Uganda, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Haiti and anywhere else the light touches.
In the past, the Cold War was blamed for the inability of the UN peacekeepers to function.
The reality was that was never the case.
The UN is captive to activists. It doesn't function because it doesn't want to. Even the Nobel Peace Prize committee spurns UN efforts, giving the peace prize to the UN's scientific arm, not the diplomatic branch.
Ramos-Horta 'out of danger'
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EAST Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta is "out of danger" and "recovering" following treatment in Australia after being shot in the stomach by rebels, the speaker of the country's parliament said.
"According to the information we have, the president has been operated on and the bullet that was in his lung has been removed," Fernando de Araujo said while on a visit to Lisbon.
"He is in the process of recovery and is out of danger," he said following talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
Earlier, Royal Darwin Hospital General Manager Doctor Len Notaras told Agence France-Presse that Dr Ramos-Horta was on a ventilator but his condition was stable.
"He's in a stable condition and while he is on a ventilation system, it's working with him ... to make him more comfortable," he said, adding that Ramos-Horta would undergo a CT scan to determine what further surgery was needed.
Dr Ramos-Horta was evacuated from the East Timor capital Dili after being shot by rebels in an assassination attempt outside his residence early on Monday local time.
After initial surgery in Dili, he was evacuated by air ambulance across the Timor Sea to Darwin for further surgery.
Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who said he was "shocked" by the attack on East Timor's democratic leadership, described Ramos-Horta as being in a "very serious but stable condition".
Prime Minister Socrates also said he was "shocked" at the attack and said Lisbon was standing by its former colony.
But he said it was "premature" to talk about boosting the 140 Portuguese police serving with a UN mission in East Timor.
State of Emergency declared
East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has declared a state of emergency for 48 hours, with a curfew to be implemented, after President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and wounded.
The state of emergency includes a curfew, which began at 8pm (2200 AEDT), Prime Minister Gusmao said.
The curfew would "revoke rights to circulate freely, meaning that people cannot walk around and everybody should remain calmly at home from 8:00 in the evening," he said in a written statement.
People would also be banned from conducting meetings or rallies, he added.
It was not immediately clear when the curfew would be lifted.
"We should all be united in overcoming or passing this challenge that opposes our stability. Now we should remain together calmly in overcoming this moment," Mr Gusmao said.
"I especially address myself to our youth, because I know that many of you are still feeling an urge to rebel. You should not imitate the evil deeds of an armed group which without justification wants to kill other people and damage the sovereignty and stability of the state," he added.
Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who enjoys some support among disaffected youth in East Timor, was killed along with another of his supporters at Ramos-Horta's residence.