DILI, March 2 (Reuters) - A senior East Timorese rebel soldier accused of being involved in attacks on the tiny country's president and prime minister last month surrendered on Sunday, a military official said. Rebel soldiers attacked the home of President Jose Ramos-Horta on Feb. 11, seriously wounding him during a gunfight. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped unhurt in a separate attack the same morning, ordered the country's military and police forces to form a joint command to arrest followers of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was killed in the attacks. Amaro da Costa, also known as Susar, surrendered to the joint command in Turiscai, 120 km (75 miles) south of the capital Dili, Filomeno Paixao, head of the joint command, told a news conference on Sunday. Arrest warrants had been issued against 17 people suspected of involvement in the attack, including deputy rebel leader Da Costa and Gastao Salsinha, who took command of rebel soldiers after Reinado was killed during the attack on Ramos-Horta. "We have also had direct and indirect contact with rebel leader Gastao Salsinha," said Paixao, adding that he hoped the rebel leader would also surrender soon. Prime Minister Gusmao urged Da Costa and other rebels to cooperate. "I am asking you to cooperate with the joint command so that people can live in tranquility", Gusmao said at the government palace. Asia's youngest nation, under a state of emergency since the attacks, has been unable to achieve stability since hard-won independence in 2002. The army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes. Foreign troops were sent to restore order in the former Portuguese colony of about one million people, which gained full independence from Indonesia after a U.N.-sponsored vote in 1999 that was marred by violence. The U.N. Security Council last week extended for another year the mandate for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in East Timor, saying the security and humanitarian situation in the country remained fragile. (Reporting by Tito Belo, Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Jan Dahinten)
East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao talks during a meeting with a group of sacked soldiers, or petitioners, who are followers of slain rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, in Dili March 1, ...
