The events of that year also gave rise to the rebellion of Alfredo Reinado, a former military police officer who led the shooting attacks last week on Gusmao, who was unharmed, and President Jose Ramos-Horta, who is being treated for his wounds in Australia. Reinado was killed.
The attacks on the two highest ranked officials in East Timor have underscored the problems the nation has faced in overcoming a history of conflict since it gained formal independence in 2002. They will almost certainly exacerbate concerns among displaced people over their safety if they return home.
In 2006, 4,000 to 5,000 homes were considered uninhabitable. Only two have been rebuilt. Sophia Casson, an analyst in East Timor with the International Crisis Group, said camp inhabitants faced not only the problems of rebuilding but also of settling a complex array of communal issues.
"Until you improve the security where people come from, they will not move back," she said.
East Timor was torn by civil war in 1975 after the abrupt end of colonial rule by Portugal and virtually razed in 1999, when the people voted in a UN-sponsored referendum to end 24 years of occupation by Indonesia, prompting an angry reaction from the losers.
But the camps are not necessarily a haven. Humanitarian workers say there are reports that in some camps residents are preyed upon by organized gangs.
Luiz Vieira, head of the International Office of Migration in East Timor, said there was also evidence of aid being diverted and sold.
"Many people who want to accept the half ration have not because they have been threatened either implicitly or explicitly," he said.
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