Failed Coup Prompts East Timor Emergency

East Timor declared a state of emergency Tuesday after attacks on the country's top leaders in a failed coup left the president in "extremely serious" condition with gunshot wounds.

The assassination attempts Monday against President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao - East Timor's independence icons - thrust the desperately poor country into a fresh crisis amid fears of more unrest and political turmoil.

Surgeons operated on Ramos-Horta for three hours overnight to remove bullet fragments and repair his chest wounds, Dr. Len Notaros, the general manager of the Royal Darwin Hospital, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tuesday.

"His condition remains extremely serious but by the same token, stable," Notaros said. "The next few days will be the telling point."

Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to the decades-long Indonesian occupation, was shot in the chest and stomach by gunmen in two cars around dawn Monday, officials said.

Rebel soldiers separately attacked Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's motorcade an hour later. He escaped unhurt.

The country's top fugitive, Alfredo Reinado, and one of his men were killed in the attack on the president. One of the president's guards also died.

Acting President Vicente Gutterres announced the two-day emergency in an address on national television. The order allows authorities to ban demonstrations and gives police extended powers of search and arrest.

"Our country is right now in an extraordinary situation where a state of emergency will bring us back to normality," Gutterres said during the announcement. "I ask for your help."

As he spoke, international soldiers and police patrolled the streets of the capital, Dili, where many shops and businesses were closed. There were no immediate reports of unrest.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried the "brutal and unspeakable attack" on Ramos-Horta. The Security Council in a statement Monday called on the nation's people to remain calm and for its government "to bring those responsible for this heinous act" to justice.

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, who led a council mission to East Timor, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that the president was shot as he took his regular morning walk.

"One report is that they went to the house looking for him and discovered that he was on his walk and that's where they attacked him," Kumalo said. "He's a very simple man ... a man of the people and sometimes you pay a price for that."

Ramos-Horta, 58, first underwent surgery at an Australian army hospital in East Timor before being sedated, attached to a ventilator and airlifted to the hospital in the northern Australian city of Darwin.

Notaros said Ramos-Horta's wounds indicated he had been shot two or three times. The most serious wound was to his the lower part of his right lung near his liver, and would likely require more surgery. There was also a risk of sepsis infection, Notaros said.

The fragments will be handed to Australia Federal Police for the investigation into the shooting, Notaros said. At least one fragment was being left in his body, and was not thought to be threatening, he said.

Gusmao called the attacks a well-planned operation intended to "paralyze the government and create instability."

"I consider this incident a coup attempt against the state by Reinado and it failed," Gusmao said. "This government won't fall because of this."

Reinado was among 600 mutinous soldiers dismissed by the government in 2006 - a move that triggered gunbattles between security forces that later spilled over into gang fighting and ethnic unrest.

At least 37 people were killed and more than 150,000 people forced from their homes in the unrest, which also led to the resignation of the country's first post-independence prime minister.

Reinado was arrested but escaped from prison after several months.

He was charged with murder in connection with the 2006 violence, but had remained in hiding and had threatened insurrection against the government - a stance that made him popular among some dissafected East Timorese youth.

"What we are going do now is try to get back our confidence after the loss of our commander, our teacher and our guide," said Joao Zito Marques, a 24-year-old student. "He was a good revolutionary struggling to find truth and justice."

Despite the outstanding charges, Ramos-Horta had met with Reinado on several occasions in recent months to try to persuade him to surrender.

A rapid response unit of 120 Australian troops, backed by a navy frigate, was due to arrive in Dili on Tuesday to join the multinational security force already there. Up to 70 extra Australian police would join the U.N. police force in East Timor.

Australia announced Tuesday it was boosting its security contribution to East Timor at Gusmao's request.