(dpa) - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta visited the Darwin hospital Wednesday where he was treated for gunshots sustained in a botched coup in Dili last month that also targeted Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.
It was his first public outing since being medically evacuated from the East Timor capital to the far-north Australian city on February 11.
"I remember every detail from the moment I was shot - the ambulance, the very old battered ambulance," Ramos-Horta told doctors who had cared for him through six operations. "I fell off the (ambulance) chair a few times because there were no belts. I remember, even though I was bleeding, I was holding on tight."
Asked if he had a message for the 1 million East Timorese, the former prime minister and foreign minister urged remaining rebel soldiers to surrender and for the violence to stop.
"My message to my people is 'please, forgo violence with weapons, with machetes, with arson - we only destroy each other and the country.'"
Last week, Ramos-Horta named his would-be assassin as Marcelo Caetano, who is among more than a dozen rebel soldiers in hiding after the coup attempt led by Major Alfredo Reinado, who died in the exchange of gunfire in Dili.
Ramos-Horta, 58, is convalescing in a private hospital and weeks away from returning to Dili.
He shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Carlos Belo for leading the diplomatic campaign for East Timor's freedom.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and its occupation continued until 1999, the year Australia led an international force that helped guide East Timor to independence.