East Timor's military commander has called for dialogue with rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado, who is on the run for murder and illegal arms possession, Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Sunday.
Reinado also reiterated his call for dialogue while addressing a seminar but was not arrested by international peacekeepers who were also present, a witness said.
Ramos-Horta said Reinado was not arrested because the military commander had called for a dialogue.
"Because there was a wish from Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak for a dialogue with him, so that he can return to base and surrender, the government is giving him another chance," Ramos-Horta told journalists in Dili. He said such a dialogue was aimed at getting Reinado to surrender and "contribute to justice."
"But he should not think he is the most important person at the present, there are many more matters which need to be addressed besides talking with him," the prime minister said.
Ramos-Horta, who on Friday urged peacekeepers to arrest Reinado, did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, the renegade officer called for dialogue Saturday in the town of Suai while addressing a seminar at which Australian and Portuguese soldiers were present, a witness said Sunday.
"I make this appearance because there was a wish from the government for a dialogue, but there was not a single (government) leader who came," Reinado was quoted by journalist Jeferino Bobo as saying in Suai, some 175 kilometers (109 miles) south of here.
Reinado, however, remained defiant.
"Those people in front of your own eyes, you do not even arrest. Why is it that I, who has not yet been declared guilty by a court, is a wanted man and being hunted?" he said when asked whether he feared arrest, but did not elaborate.
The United Nations last month called for former premier Mari Alkatiri and other senior government members to be criminally investigated in a report into April-May violence which left 37 dead.
Although dressed in civilian clothes, Reinado was escorted by two armed personal guards, while one Portuguese and two Australian soldiers present made no move to arrest him.
He is believed to be hiding at a secret base near Suai with some 10 other followers. Dili has called on Reinado, whom they have accused of murder, to surrender to Australian peacekeepers.
He was arrested in August on charges of weapons possession despite promises from his group that they had surrendered all their arms to Australian peacekeepers deployed following unrest blamed on the major.
Shortly afterwards he escaped from his Dili jail along with more than 50 other inmates.
In May, Reinado led a group of deserting troops and was accused of sparking civil unrest that killed 21 people. The violence prompted the deployment of an Australian-led international peacekeeping force.