AGE: Gusmao sheds reluctance over first presidency
John M.Miller
By LINDSAY MURDOCH INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT
DILI Tuesday 1 August 2000
After insisting for months that he would refuse the job, former guerrilla
Jose "Xanana" Gusmao is set to become the first president of independent
East Timor.
Mr Gusmao has now said he plans to accept nomination for the presidency at
elections scheduled for late next year.
Almost all of the emerging political parties and their leaders have pledged
their support for Mr Gusmao leading the territory to independence.
A small breakaway faction of Fretilin, the revolutionary party Mr Gusmao
once led, opposes his election.
Noble peace prize winner Jose Ramos Horta told The Age that two weeks ago
he confronted Mr Gusmao about his unwillingness to accept the position.
"I told him `Stop this bullshit ... you know you enjoy it. Don't tell me
you don't,"' Mr Ramos Horta said.
He said that when he asked Mr Gusmao whether he could turn his back on his
people, he replied "no".
"Xanana has agreed to accept the job," Mr Ramos Horta said.
Mr Gusmao spent about eight years in Indonesian jails after his capture in
Dili in 1992. He was released last year after a majority of East Timorese
voted to end Indonesia's 24-year rule of the former Portuguese territory.
East Timorese leaders have agreed that Mr Gusmao should lead a government
of national unity, made up of representatives of all significant parties,
for at least five years after the withdrawal of UN administrators.
The UN has been running the territory since the Indonesian withdrawal last
September.
Mr Gusmao recently married a Melbourne woman, Kirsty Sword, who for years
worked behind the scenes supporting the East Timorese resistance in Jakarta.
Despite the Indonesian military's sponsorship of violence in the territory
last year, Mr Gusmao has formed a warm relationship with Indonesia's
President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Mr Ramos Horta is set to become East Timor's first foreign minister,
although he insists he would prefer not to have the job.
"You cannot retain your integrity once you are in the government," he said.
"But if I honestly believe that there is no one else who can do the job, I
would do it in a transition period."
East Timor's major political parties support Mr Ramos Horta becoming
foreign minister.
He returned to a hero's welcome in the territory late last year after 24
years pushing East Timor's independence as the resistance movement's
international representative.
end
etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan
John M. Miller Internet: jo...@etan.org
Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network
48 Duffield St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097
Mobile: (917)690-4391
Web site: http://www.etan.org
Send a blank e-mail message to in...@etan.org to find out how to learn
more about East Timor on the Internet
etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan