E. Timor Celebrates Its Independence

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

AP via The New York Times - May 19, 2002

E. Timor Celebrates Its Independence

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DILI, East Timor (AP) -- Thousands of people dressed in national
colors streamed Sunday toward the site of nighttime celebrations
marking the declaration of their tiny territory's independence and
the creation of the world's newest nation.

Up to 100,000 people are expected at the ceremonies in a dusty field
outside the capital, Dili, including dozens of world leaders.

At midnight local time, East Timor was to become an independent
nation after three centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, 24 years of
brutal Indonesian occupation and 2 1/2 years of United Nations
administration.

Earlier Sunday, around 500 people crowded into the garden of Nobel
Peace Prize winning Roman catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo to
celebrate a Mass. He called for peace and forgiveness and blessed
East Timor's new leaders.

``We are very happy. We are a proud and simple people who deserve
peace, who deserve freedom,'' said Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta,
who shared the 1996 Nobel prize with Belo.

Security forces blocked off roads and staged drills to prepare for
the celebration, which was to feature an elaborate fireworks display
and the raising of the East Timorese flag, a white star on a
background of red, yellow and black. U.N. helicopters flew overhead.

Mostly Roman Catholic East Timor, whose population is 800,000, voted
for independence in a U.N.-sponsored referendum in 1999. Shortly
afterward, anti-independence militias supported by the Indonesian
army went on a monthlong rampage that destroyed much of the territory
and killed hundreds.

``This is the start of a new life for East Timor,'' Jalmira da Silva,
a 32-year-old housewife, said Sunday. She said she lost three
brothers who fought for independence. ``I am relieved that we can go
back to normal now, but I want to see justice done for my three
brothers.''

East Timor has set up a truth and reconciliation commission to reveal
past crimes and help people come to terms with them.

Independence was to take effect at midnight Sunday, and world leaders
arrived throughout the day for the celebrations. President-elect
Xanana Gusmao met U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at Dili's airport
and presented him with a traditional East Timorese scarf.

``In less than 12 hours East Timor will be an independent nation: a
moment of pride and liberation,'' Annan said. ``This moment belongs
to the people of East Timor who have so richly deserved their
freedom.''

Annan praised the achievements of the U.N. mission in East Timor and
said the world body would continue to work with the nation.

``This is not the end of the road. We are not saying goodbye,'' he
said, stressing that a new, smaller U.N. mission would replace the
outgoing one.

Former President Bill Clinton arrived shortly Annan and said the
territory's independence was ``a tribute to the persistence and the
resilience of the people of East Timor and their leaders.''

Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio pledged to continue with aid and
cooperation. Portugal is East Timor's largest foreign donor.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a longtime opponent of
independence for East Timor, agreed to attend the ceremony despite
strong opposition from some hard-line Indonesian lawmakers.

In an apparent attempt to deflect that criticism, she was to visit
the graves of Indonesian soldiers who died during the occupation of
East Timor.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard urged the international
community not to forget East Timor after independence. Long-term
viability will depend on whether the new country can attract foreign
investment and establish a good business environment, Howard said
Sunday in Dili. East Timor is about 250 miles north of Australia.

Australia, which has 1,500 troops among the 5,000 international
peacekeepers currently in East Timor, will sign a treaty with the new
nation next week dividing oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea.
East Timor will receive 90 percent of the revenues from those
reserves, not expected to flow until 2005.

Also Sunday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers,
visited returning refugees in Hera, a village 6 miles east of Dili.

He celebrated Sunday Mass with them, taking communion, and then held
a town meeting to listen to concerns about lack of food and shelter.

The U.N. refugee agency says 207,000 East Timorese refugees have
returned since being driven from their homes in the 1999 rampage.

The number of returnees has swelled as independence approaches -- a
sign of confidence in a land that has known much hardship and
bloodshed.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press
 
=================================================================
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems 
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us          
              339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012             
  http://www.blythe.org                  e-mail: nyt@blythe.org 
=================================================================
 
nytas-05.19.02-09:01:08-25629