International forces search for E Timor rebel chief

DILI, Aug 31 (Reuters) International security forces and UN police in East Timor have launched a search for rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado who escaped from jail along with more than 50 prisoners, officials said today.

Reinado, who was one of the figureheads of a revolt which plunged the fledgling nation into chaos in May, escaped from Becora jail near the capital yesterday.

Brigadier Mick Slater, the head of Australian troops in East Timor, said the prisoners walked out the jail's front gate during visiting hours. The ease of the escape will raise concerns over the fragile security situation in the former Portuguese colony.

''The United Nations and the International Security Forces have agreed to work closely together and coordinate efforts on recapturing all the prisoners who escaped'', the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste said in a statement. Timor Leste is the official name for East Timor.

The United Nations agreed last week on a new mission to East Timor, comprising 1,608 police, despite a dispute over whether Australian-led international troops already there should remain independent or be part of a UN force.

The head of the UN police force in East Timor urged people to contact security forces with information about the escapees. Slater described the mass breakout as disappointing and said it was likely the escapees were now armed, although Dili remained quiet and calm.

''We have sealed off the city, we did that within about 15 minutes of the escape yesterday,'' Slater told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio today.

He said the escape appeared organised and that the prisoners had broken into smaller groups, but most were still in Dili.

''It is a matter now of trying to find them in parts of the city that are really very dense rabbit warrens of suburbs,'' Slater said.

East Timor experienced a series of protests which evolved into widespread violence in May after 600 members of the former Portuguese colony's 1,400-strong army were sacked.

In late May, Reinado led his followers into the mountains behind Dili and refused to give up weapons until then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri resigned.

An estimated 100,000 people were displaced and at least 20 killed in the violence which led to deployment of a 2,500-strong international peacekeeping force.

The revolt stemmed from divisions between troops from the east and those from the west of the country, which was ruled by Jakarta from 1976 until an independence referendum in 1999 which resulted in a bloody crackdown.

REUTERS MS RAI1007