East Timor police arrest 200 for breaking curfew

East Timor police have arrested slain rebel leader Alfredo Reinado's lawyer in connection with last week's assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos-Horta, the prosecutor general said on Monday.

The 40-year-old woman with dual East Timorese and Australian citizenship was arrested in Dili on Sunday. Prosecutors did not give any more details.

Separately, police said more 200 people had been detained for breaking emergency laws imposed after the assassination attempt last Monday.

Ramos-Horta, 58, was critically wounded by gunfire from rebel soldiers, while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unhurt in a separate attack, which some analysts said could plunge the fragile Southeast Asian nation into fresh turmoil.

Police along with East Timor's army and international forces are conducting operations against rebels believed to be involved in the attacks in which Reinado was also killed.

"More than 200 people were detained by police for investigation purposes. These people did not follow the state regulation and were walking around the city at night," police operations commander Mateus Fernandes told Reuters.

Meetings and protests are banned under the emergency, and all citizens must stay home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

East Timor's prosecutor general has issued arrest warrants against 17 people suspected of involvement in the attacks on Ramos-Horta and Gusmao.

A confidant of Reinado told Reuters the rebel leader might have wanted to kidnap the president and kill the prime minister in a bid to oust foreign troops and force a snap election.

Asia's youngest nation has been unable to achieve stability since hard-won independence. 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 needed to restore order in the former Portuguese colony of about a 1 million people, which gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a U.N.-sponsored vote in 1999 that was marred by violence.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and many thousands of East Timorese died during a brutal occupation.

People in Dili, which has been calm since the attacks, said they were unhappy with the curfew because it affected small businesses.

"I think the government has dramatised the situation. It's so calm in Dili and the country, but they have not pulled back the state of emergency," said Joao Pinto, a shopkeeper in Dili.

"It's very hard for us to do our business at night because our customers always come at night."