East Timor president leaves Australian hospital

(CNN) -- Choking back tears, the president of East Timor said goodbye Wednesday to the Australian hospital staff who took care of him for five weeks following an assassination attempt at home.

President Jose Ramos-Horta, 58, looked thin and walked gingerly as he left the hospital where he had been recuperating after rebels shot him in the back during a coordinated attack in East Timor's capital, Dili, on February 11.

Ramos-Horta said he expects to stay in Australia for a few more days so doctors can monitor his progress. He intends to return to his country "in a few weeks' time," he said.

The president told hospital staff that he remembered "every detail" from the moment he was shot, the Australian Associated Press reported.

"On the way to the heliport I fell off the chair a few times because there were no belts," the national news agency quoted Ramos-Horta as saying. "I remember even though I was bleeding I was holding on tight. And I was telling the driver, 'Go slow.'"

Authorities blamed the attack on rebel soldiers led by leader Maj. Alfredo Reinado. He was killed in the assault, along with another attacker and a presidential bodyguard.

About 600 East Timorese soldiers were dismissed in March 2006 after they went on strike against alleged discrimination in the military.

Reinado, the Australian-trained former head of East Timor's military police, joined the revolt and became its leader. He was later captured, but broke out of prison and returned to lead disaffected troops.

The coordinated attack on February 11 also targeted the country's prime minister Xanana Gusmao the same day. He escaped unhurt.

After the assassination attempt, Australia sent more than 200 troops and police to help stabilize East Timor. The security forces are in addition to an international stabilization force of about 1,000 soldiers from Australia, Malaysia, Portugal and New Zealand that have been in East Timor since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Ramos-Horta shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work on behalf of the East Timorese people during the country's quarter-century occupation by Indonesia.

As he left the hospital Wednesday, the president issued this appeal to his countrymen:

"My message to my people, the people back home, is please forgo violence, hatred, with weapons, with machete, with arson," he said. "We only destroy each other, destroy the country." E-mail to a friend

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