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.