Lindsay Murdoch – The East Timorese rebel leader Alfredo Reinado has obtained weapons since he led a mass escape from Dili's main jail last week, his lawyer said yesterday.

"I have information that he and his men have guns and are in the hills not too far from Dili," Paulo Remedios said by telephone from the East Timorese capital. "I don't know his location exactly, but a lot of people are telling me that the Australian police and military know where he is."

Mr Remedios said he understands the Australians have made contact with the 39-year-old Australian-trained Reinado, who within hours of his escape circulated a letter in Dili calling for Timorese to rise up in a "people power" revolution. "Maybe the Australian police and military think it is too dangerous to try to arrest him and his men at this time," Mr Remedios said.

Renaido is a former military policeman who left his post in May because he objected to orders, which he said the East Timorese Government gave, to shoot civilian protesters.

The Australian Army's commander in Dili, Brigadier Mick Slater, earlier confirmed he had sent messages to Reinado calling on him to surrender.

Several Australian Army officers developed a close relationship with Reinado before he and 20 of his men were arrested on July 26 on charges of possessing nine handguns, ammunition and grenades.

For weeks Reinado had lived with a group of Australian SAS soldiers at a walled, Portuguese-era fort in the mountain village of Maubisse. He had fled there after firing the first shots in East Timor's crisis in May.

Mr Remedios said that after he was arrested Reinado made repeated statements that he believed his life was in danger. Even while in Becora jail, from which he and 56 other inmates escaped last Wednesday, he had expressed concern about lack of security at the jail, Mr Remedios said.

None of the escapees, many of whom are convicted murderers, have been arrested. Two men who said they were escapees presented themselves on Monday to East Timorese police in the village of Alieu, in the country's western mountains, but they were not detained. Police in Dili could not explain why.

Almost 200 Australian and other international police in Dili are struggling to contain gang violence, which is breaking out in parts of the city almost every day.

The commander of the Australian police, Steve Lancaster, told ABC radio yesterday that boredom was a major problem among the trouble-makers. "We still have a lot of people out there who just join in and have nothing much better to do than get involved in a good rock fight."

He expects a 1600-strong United Nations police force, including 130 Australians, will be fully deployed in Dili by December, but the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, told ABC radio the UN force would not be enough to handle security. "I do think there should be military back-up in case the worst happens," Mr Downer said yesterday.