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.