Horta quits E. Timor's interim parliament
Horta quits E. Timor's interim parliament
DILI, East Timor (AP): Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta on Monday stepped down from East Timor's interim parliament to return to his former position as cabinet member for foreign affairs.
In a letter addressed to the United Nations administration in East Timor, Ramos Horta said he was resigning from the 36-member National Council after it rejected his bid for the top post of speaker last week.
He said he would return to his previous post as foreign minister in the nine-member UN and East Timorese transitional cabinet.
"All National Council members persuaded me that the portfolio of foreign affairs is very important to East Timor and I should continue in that position," Ramos Horta said.
The position of National Council speaker was left vacant after independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao resigned in March, citing political infighting in the body.
On April 9, the National Council elected veteran independence campaigner Manuel Carrascalao as its new speaker over Ramos Horta, who was supported by the UN authority in his bid.
East Timor is currently under the administration of the world body, following a vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999. The National Council is an unelected body, serving as East Timor's embryonic parliament. The council will be dissolved ahead of elections in August for an assembly to draft the country's first constitution.
East Timor is expected to achieve independence early next year.
In an address to the National Council on Monday, Ramos Horta also urged members to continue to support the presence of the United Nations in East Timor in the future.
In recent months, the international administration has been criticized by East Timorese for not doing enough to rebuild the country and for the disparity in standards of living between locals and international UN staffers.
"We should not look at the presence of the UN in East Timor as new colonizers," Ramos Horta said.
Meanwhile in Sydney, Bishop Carlos Belo appealed on Monday for an international tribunal to punish crimes against humanity in East Timor and help the fledgling nation come to terms with atrocities committed after it voted for independence from Indonesia.
Belo said the United Nations should set up an international court similar to those already meting out justice for atrocities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
"Justice must not be restricted to a chosen few. It must be universal," the Nobel laureate said in a speech in Sydney. "What is good for Bosnia or Rwanda is also good for East Timor. There must be no hiding place for political monsters such as unleashed the destruction of East Timor in 1999."
Belo said the East Timorese did not trust investigations launched in Jakarta into atrocities sparked by the former Indonesian province's vote for independence in August 1999.
Hundreds of people were killed and an estimated 80 percent of East Timor's infrastructure was destroyed by pro-Indonesian militia gangs and troops following the popular vote that ended 24 years of rule by Jakarta.
UN staff are already investigating the atrocities and are expected to indict as many as 400 suspects, including some top Indonesian military officers.
The Indonesian probe was launched under a UN directive to prosecute members of its military and civil administration for their roles in the blood bath or face the possible establishment of a UN tribunal.