E. Timorese urged to return home

E. Timorese urged to return home

Agence France-Presse, Lisbon

East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has urged skilled workers
living in former colonial power Portugal to return home and help
rebuild the war-battered country.

"We know of doctors and technicians who are doing well here
and who are not motivated to return," he said in an interview
published in Portuguese daily Diario de Noticas on Wednesday.

"They should be conscious that right now giving is more
essential than receiving," he added.

Portugal colonized East Timor for four centuries before it
abruptly withdrew in 1975, leaving the territory to be annexed by
Indonesia.

Some 4,000 East Timorese currently live in Portugal, the
majority of them students who came to Portugal in the years
following Jakarta's invasion of the tiny nation.

Much of East Timor's infrastructure was destroyed by departing
Indonesian security forces and their militias after the country
voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Indonesia in
August 1999.

At least 1,000 people died in violence before or after the
referendum, and more than 250,000 East Timorese fled or were
forced across the border into Indonesian West Timor.

Tens of thousand have still not returned home and the country
now faces a shortage of skilled workers, especially doctors.

East Timor, which officially became independent in May, has
just 47 doctors for its 850,000 citizens according to the World
Health Organization.

Gusmao began a five day official visit to Portugal on
Saturday. During his stay in the country Gusmao sought medical
attention for a back problem that caused him to cancel a
scheduled trip to Braga in the far north of Portugal.

During a lunch with Portuguese bankers and business leaders on
Monday Gusmao appealed for investment in East Timor.

Portugal is a leading foreign investor in Brazil and its five
other former colonies in Africa.