E. Timor hero seen in presidential race

E. Timor hero seen in presidential race

Reuters, Dili, East Timor

East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao, who has said he has no political ambitions, will likely run in the tiny territory's first presidential election, the foreign minister said.

The deadline for candidates is only days away but Jose Ramos Horta told Reuters he was confident Gusmao, widely seen as the natural choice for president, would declare his interest in the April 14 vote.

"He will run for president...he will present himself either as an independent candidate, or as a candidate of one party or a group of parties. I would prefer that he present himself as an independent," Ramos Horta, de facto foreign minister and the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in an interview late on Tuesday.

"I told him bluntly, it is false modesty. Why did you lead all of us in this battle? Why independence if you do not want to continue the journey? Why allow so many sacrifices by the people?" he said, recalling a conversation the two men had last August.

Saturday is the deadline to declare candidates for the vote but so far only one, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, has been nominated.

But he is not seen as a major challenge to Gusmao, despite having been East Timor's first president in 1975 between a declaration of independence from Portugal and Indonesia's invasion of the territory 10 days later.

Gusmao enjoys broad-based support and popularity and recently held several community meetings throughout the tiny territory, moves analysts say show he has begun campaigning for the top job.

The newly-elected president will take office on May 20, the day East Timor is due to become formally independent.

The United Nations has administered the tiny territory since late 1999, when foreign peacekeepers stepped in after pro-Jakarta militias went on a killing spree and destroyed much of the country after a referendum that saw an overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia.

The United Nations estimates some 1,000 people were killed in violence that followed the vote to end almost a quarter of a century of often brutal Indonesian rule.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move never recognized by the United Nations.