Portuguese FM pledges to help rebuild E. Timor

Portuguese FM pledges to help rebuild E. Timor

DILI, East Timor (AFP): Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama
pledged Lisbon's help in building a free East Timor on the first
high-level Portuguese visit here since Portugal abruptly left the
territory in 1975.

Addressing a crowd of some 2,500 people at an auditorium in
central Dili on Thursday, shortly after his arrival, Gama hailed
the "perseverance" and "courage" of the East Timorese people and
pledged his country's help in building a free state of East
Timor.

He said Lisbon intended to help organize programs in education
and health in its former colony which it ruled for 450 years.
Portugal will send firefighters, medics and teachers to be "at
your side construct an independent East Timor."

The first bank to begin operations in ruined Dili was a
Portuguese state bank which opened its doors on Monday, mostly to
pay the pensions of former Portuguese civil servants.

Payments were made in Portuguese escudos, which along the
Indonesian rupiah, the Australian and U.S. dollars, are now in
circulation here.

Lisbon said on Tuesday it will send 700 troops to East Timor
to join United Nations peacekeepers here.

Accompanied by helicopters and a company of logistics experts,
the troops will arrive in East Timor next January or February.
Gama, who arrived from Australia, also praised Xanana Gusmao, the
independence leader who is widely tipped to become free East
Timor's first president, who sat at the same podium as "the
symbol of the liberation of the East Timorese people."

"For 24 years Portugal always stood at the side of the
Timorese people," Gusmao said in his welcoming speech in
Portuguese.

He also spoke of the "historical and cultural identity we want
to preserve with Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries."
With a traditional woven scarf slung over the neck, Gama
galvanized the crowd, shouting "Long Live East Timor," and Long
Live fraternal friendship."

He said he interpreted the warm welcome he had received as "a
sign of friendship for Portugal."

Accompanying Gama on the trip were Ambassador Fernando Neves
who negotiated the May 5 agreement with Indonesia at the United
Nations, paving the way for the East Timor ballot on
independence, and the head of the Portuguese mission to the
territory, Santos Braga.

Gama's visit is to prepare a trip by President Jorge Sampaio
to the territory after joining in ceremonies to mark Macau's
return to China on Dec. 20.

The foreign minister was due to meet UN chief administrator
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the commander of the International Forces
for East Timor (Interfet) Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, Nobel
laureate Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, and
representatives of Portuguese humanitarian organizations.

Gama will also go aboard a Portuguese navy frigate anchored in
Dili Bay.

Meanwhile, Gusmao and freedom campaigner and Nobel laureate
Jose Ramos Horta who only returned here on Wednesday after 24
years in exile, inaugurated a new office of the National
Resistance Council of East Timor not far from the governor's
office.

East Timor was invaded by Indonesian troops in December 1975,
just months after the Portuguese colonial administration left it
abruptly following domestic upheavals.

The invasion led to Lisbon severing diplomatic ties with
Indonesia, which annexed the territory the following year in a
move never recognized by the United Nations.

East Timor passed under UN control on Oct. 25 after the
Indonesian parliament ratified the results of a UN-held ballot in
which the East Timorese voted four to one to break away from
Indonesia.

The vote results was followed by a week of unchecked rampage
by Indonesian military-backed militias which left Dili and scores
of other towns across East Timor in ruins.