Lisbon – Timor Leste's former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, under investigation for his alleged role in violence that wracked the nation earlier this year, said Saturday that he believes there are plans to assassinate him and other members of his Fretilin party.
"I have no doubts that these plans exist. I'm not saying it will happen, but it could happen. I am one of the targets," he told the Lusa news agency in Portugal where he arrvied earlier in the week to receive medical treatment for an unspecified ailment. "I am not afraid of being a target of an assassination attempt, if I was afraid I still wouldn't be in Timor Leste," he added.
Alkatiri said the people plotting his assassination, who he did not name, were also behind the violence which swept Timor Leste's capital Dili in April and May that eventually led to his resignation.
Some 37 people were left dead in pitched battles between rival security forces during bloody street violence which was sparked by Alkatiri's decision to dismiss a third of the nation's soldiers who had deserted, complaining of discrimination.
Stability has largely returned to the former Portuguese colony following the arrival of foreign peacekeepers at Dili's request and the installation of a new government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta.
Alkatiri said he planned to return to Timor Leste but was not yet sure when.
"I could return next week, I could return in two weeks or in one month. The likely plan is to return in December. As I am here to receive medical treatment, I don't know how much time I will have to stay," he said.
"I don't run, I will never flee from Timor Leste. If I wanted to flee I would have done it a long time ago. I faced everything in the most difficult moment, it is not now, that things appear to be becoming clarified, that I would run," he added.
Alkatiri was questioned by prosecutors in Timor Leste on Tuesday, one day before he left the country for Portugal, over allegations that he ordered a hit squad to kill political opponents during the unrest earlier in the year. He denies the claims but has vowed to cooperate in the investigation.