East Timorese leaders to visit Indonesia<\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters): Nobel peace prize co-winner Jose
\nRamos-Horta said on Wednesday that he and East Timorese
\nindependence leader Xanana Gusmao would meet Indonesia's new
\npresident Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
\"We are going to Jakarta, even before I finally return to East
\nTimor, to pay tribute to the wisdom and vision of (President)
\nAbdurrahman Wahid and begin the process of reconciliation and
\nrebuilding of relations with that great country, the Republic of
\nIndonesia,\" Ramos-Horta said.<\/p>\n
Calling Wahid \"my good friend,\" Ramos-Horta said the new
\nIndonesian leader was a \"man of great moral authority, something
\nthat was lacking in Indonesia for many years.\"<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta, expected to go home for the first time since 1974
\non Dec. 1, made the comments while accepting an award from the
\nHague Appeal for Peace, a coalition of various groups that
\norganized a conference in the Netherlands capital in May, to call
\nfor the abolition of war in the new century.<\/p>\n
Cora Weiss, a veteran American peace campaigner and president
\nof the Hague Appeal for Peace, said Ramos-Horta was honored for
\nhis non-violent struggle for East Timorese independence from
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
In 1996 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with East Timor's
\nspiritual leader, Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo.<\/p>\n
Indonesia incorporated the former Portuguese colony in 1975
\nbut agreed to let it go after East Timorese on Aug. 30 voted
\noverwhelmingly for independence in a UN-organized ballot.<\/p>\n
Pro-Jakarta militias went on the rampage to protest the vote
\nbefore Australian-led troops entered the territory in mid-
\nSeptember to restore order.<\/p>\n
Ramos-Horta, in his speech accepting the prize, noted that
\nU.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke was leaving for a trip to Timor
\non Thursday. Holbrooke and Assistant Secretary of State Stanley
\nRoth are to visit East Timor, West Timor and Jakarta before
\nreturning to the United States on Nov. 24.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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