Gusmao urges parties to avoid violence, graft
Gusmao urges parties to avoid violence, graft
DILI, East Timor (Agencies): A day after announcing that he will run for East Timor's presidency next year, freedom fighter Xanana Gusmao on Sunday urged all parties to respect the outcome of Thursday's election for a constituent assembly that will set the nation on its road to independence.
"Big or small we must respect each other," Gusmao said at a political rally in the capital, Dili.
The 88-member constituent assembly will draft a constitution for the world's newest nation and decide whether it will have a presidential or parliamentary system.
The territory, which has been under United Nations administration since the Indonesian withdrawal in Oct. 1999, is expected to achieve self-rule by the middle of next year.
Gusmao, 55, who led the war against the Indonesians in the 1980s and spent seven years behind bars after being captured by government troops, became a potent symbol of East Timor's resistance to the 24-year occupation.
He enjoys immense personal popularity and is widely expected to become East Timor's first president.
On Saturday, he finally relented to public pressure and declared his intention to run in the presidential elections, expected early next year.
"I declare here and now that I will accept to be nominated by the parties to the office of the president of the republic of Timor Lorasae," Gusmao said.
"...I wish to put an end to speculation on this subject. (But) I am conscious that I am not the best person for the job." The hugely popular Gusmao had repeatedly said he did not wish to stand and would prefer to spend his time helping people understand the democratic process.
But Gusmao, who recently said he wanted to concentrate on photography, also told his supporters he had other passions besides politics.
"I always nurtured the dream that after independence I would have time to cultivate pumpkins and breed animals and hopes should never die," he said.
In an interview later with BBC World Service radio, Gusmao said he had changed his mind about standing for election after coming under intense pressure from foreign governments.
However, Gusmao said his pursuit of the presidency was conditional on a peaceful outcome to Thursday's UN-supervised ballot.
He insisted that violence among rivals, which has wracked the country for generations, must not erupt again, and demanded that the government adopt a policy of reconciliation for those who fought for or backed Indonesian rule.
"Choose in such a way that we do not spill blood on our hands again," Gusmao said at Sunday's rally in Dili's main sports stadium.
He also warned the country's politicians against allowing a revival of the endemic corruption that marked 24 years of Indonesian rule, and appealed for all citizens to remain vigilant and prevent any instances of collusion and nepotism.
"Some among the party leaderships are looking to control things from the top," Xanana told a crowd of some 2,000 supporters of the Democratic Party, a group of former underground resistance supporters.
Although Gusmao is not affiliated with any of the 16 parties contesting Thursday's ballot, he has frequently appeared at rallies organized by the Democratic Party.
In his speech, party leader Fernando Lasama de Araujo -- a former student leader who spent six years in jail in Jakarta -- blasted Indonesia's brutal occupation, in which tens of thousands of East Timorese were killed.
"We're fighting for democracy because we do not want those death merchants in our country again," de Araujo said.