`Always look after yourself and the kids'

The Australian (Australia)

February 15, 2008 Friday

`Always look after yourself and the kids'

Paige Taylor

THE day before rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in a gun
battle at the home of East Timor's President, he phoned his wife in
Perth and made her promise she would always look after herself and
their four children.

Maria Reinado yesterday told of her grief at the loss of her husband,
a former Perth shipyard worker who once swore she would never become
a young widow. ``It is hard for me to help (our children) to
understand that he is gone,'' she told The Australian in a written statement.

``They tell me that dad is still alive and not to believe the TV. I
encourage the kids to cry out loud, and remind them of the daily
horrible nightmare -- to hide reality would be foolish.''

Ms Reinado, 30, was not at her husband's funeral in East Timor
yesterday. Friends believe it is too dangerous for her to return even
briefly to the country where her husband has been a central figure in
violence and political unrest.

But Ms Reinado's pleas for permanent protection in Australia have
been rejected and she and her children will be forced back to East
Timor unless Immigration Minister Chris Evans intervenes.

Neither Ms Reinado nor her advocates would discuss her case, but
former Jesuit Refugee Service director Frank Brennan said Senator
Evans would be unwise to force the widow or her children to live in
East Timor. ``We should not force anyone to return there at this
time, especially if they are related to persons identified with the
causes of the emergency and instability,'' he said.

The Reinado family was living in Dili in May 2006, and Ms Reinado was
pregnant with the couple's fourth child, Felicity, when Reinado
abandoned his military barracks and joined hundreds of armed rebels
in the hills.

He never met his youngest child; as mob violence escalated in the
capital, Ms Reinado fled to their former home town of Perth with
their children, Billy, Donovan and Tiffany. ``The children spoke to
Alfredo almost every night, they had a close relationship,'' Ms
Reinado said in the statement released through the West Australian
Uniting Church's justice and mission consultant, Rosemary Hudson Miller.

``Alfredo encouraged me to be strong for the kids. Sometimes I would
cry alone at night so the children wouldn't see me be weak.''

Ms Reinado was introduced to her future husband by her brother
``Afri'' on her 15th birthday in 1992 and their romance began a month
later. Their son Billy was a baby when they married on May 24, 1995
and their ``honeymoon'' was aboard a friend's fishing vessel Reinado
captained to Darwin with 15 other asylum-seekers.

They lived in Melbourne, Perth and Darwin over the next four years,
and their son Donovan was born in Australia.

``In our last conversation, he asked me to promise him that I would
look after myself and our children,'' Ms Reinado said.

``He promised me once that I would never become a young widow and now
he is gone. I will not break my promise to him.''