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