Gusmao 'sad' at becoming E. Timor's first president

Gusmao 'sad' at becoming E. Timor's first president

Guerrilla commander turned president-elect Xanana Gusmao feels
"sad" at becoming East Timor's first elected head of state, he
told an Indonesian TV station.

"My personal feeling is sadness," he told the private TV-7
network after winning the soon-to-be-independent territory's
first presidential poll last week with a resounding 83 percent of
the vote.

"Sad, because once again I have lost my freedom."

The charismatic and intensely popular Gusmao, 55, who spent 15
years in the jungle fighting Indonesian troops and almost seven
years in an Indonesian prison, was always a reluctant candidate
for president.

He had said he preferred to focus on looking after the
veterans of the 24-year guerrilla war against Indonesian rule,
and had dreamt of retiring to grow pumpkins after independence.

When he announced his candidacy last August, he said he was
driven into standing by pressure from domestic and international
leaders, most of whom named Gusmao as the only figure who could
unite East Timorese.

In the interview with TV-7, Gusmao said his election had
forestalled his plans for the East Timor Veterans' Association,
which he heads.

"I'm sad also because I had my own plans for myself and for my
colleagues from the (independence) struggle ... but what can be
done?"

Gusmao will be sworn in as president by United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan when Annan formally declares East
Timor independent at midnight on May 19-20.

Gusmao has pledged to reconcile East Timorese who had
supported Jakarta's rule and those who opposed it, improve
relations with Indonesia, and pursue amnesties for East Timorese
involved in the wave of Indonesian army-backed violence and
destruction surrounding the August 1999 independence vote.

The United Nations-supervised ballot resulted in a 78.5
percent vote to split from Indonesia, which had ruled the
impoverished half-island territory for 24 years since invading it
in December 1975.

The invasion followed the withdrawal of former colonial rulers
Portugal from East Timor after more than four centuries of harsh
rule. -- AFP