East Timor leaders open landmark political congress

East Timor leaders open landmark political congress

DILI, East Timor (AP): In a step toward establishing an
independent government, East Timor's political leaders opened
their first multiparty congress on Monday with calls for unity.

Independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao urged the
450 delegates from across the tiny half-island, UN-administered
territory, to "embrace democracy" and agree on how to prepare for
self-rule by the end of 2001.

"We must lay safe foundations that will sustain the very first
new country of the 21st century," he said. "The international
community is looking at us. The world wants to know how mature we
are."

The congress has been organized by the Council of National
Resistance of Timor, an umbrella group of East Timorese factions
that had been set up to oppose Indonesian occupation.

Indonesia pulled out almost a year ago after the overwhelming
majority of East Timorese voted in a UN-sponsored ballot to
secede.

The result of the ballot triggered a wave of violence and
destruction by anti-independence militiamen that ended only after
international peacekeepers arrived.

The United Nations is administering East Timor during its
transition to full independence.

"My greatest wish is that this congress will be the catalyst
to bring together all parties which will rebuild East Timor,"
said the territory's spiritual leader and Nobel Peace laureate
Bishop Carlos Belo.

It is expected the congress would end with the formation of a
new umbrella organization that would take East Timor into
independence.

However, the calls for unity may have fallen on deaf ears.

"I don't know what is going to come out of this. But if we
don't like it then we won't be part of it," said Joao
Carrascalao, the president of the Democratic Union of Timor, the
territory's second biggest political party.

Organizers had expected several thousand supporters to attend
the opening of the nine-day congress. However, only about 1,000
showed up.

Security was tight across Dili. UN police set up roadblocks
searching cars for weapons and explosives.

In the past few weeks, there have been several clashes between
UN peacekeepers and militia fighters near the border with
Indonesia's West Timor. Two UN soldiers have been killed and four
others wounded.

Several militiamen have also died in the clashes.