Portuguese president holds talks on rebuilding E. Timor
Portuguese president holds talks on rebuilding E. Timor
DILI, East Timor (AFP): Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio met with East Timorese leaders on Sunday to discuss the difficult challenge of rebuilding the territory, ravaged by last year's militia violence.
Sampaio is the first Portuguese head of state to visit the tiny half-island which was a colony of Lisbon for more than 400 years, before Portugal's abrupt withdrawal in 1975 triggered Indonesia's invasion and 24-year occupation.
Sampaio has described his three-day visit to East Timor as the realization of a long-held dream.
"Portugal doesn't want anything from East Timor, the old times are old times. Today what we have is friendship, a desire to have cooperative relations and we hope that this country can overcome all the difficulties," he said Sunday after meeting Nobel peace laureate Bishop Ximenes Carlos Belo.
East Timor was facing "an equally difficult" challenge of rebuilding, he said, after pro-Jakarta militias went on a rampage here, angered when the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with Jakarta in a UN-organized ballot on Aug. 30.
Sampaio was speaking in front of the charred ruins of Belo's house which was burned down in the orgy of terror and destruction.
"It is with emotion and with a historic sense that I am here with you. I did not expect to be here with your damaged house behind us," he said, adding it was important that the world be reminded of the challenges ahead.
Belo said: "This is an historic moment for me. In front of the ruins of this house that was for many years a refuge and where all the people would come.
"We told the president our wishes and our aspirations to rebuild East Timor."
Sampaio also called on donor countries who met in Tokyo in December to make good on promises to help East Timor.
"I hope that the donor countries that pledged in Tokyo ... now materialize these expectations. It is crucial for the programs to be put in place," he said.
Sampaio also took time out to pay his respects to about 150 people killed by Indonesian troops in a cemetery massacre in 1991.
During an unscheduled stop, Sampaio walked alone with Gusmao and Belo past some of the graves in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili where the victims were killed and buried, spending a few minutes in silent contemplation.
Sampaio also met independence leader Xanana Gusmao and Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), to discuss practical help from Portugal. East Timor is now under UN administration as it moves towards full independence in two to three years.
"I received from the president and his ministers a guarantee that Portugal will do everything it can to strengthen even more that cooperation," de Mello said, adding East Timor was looking for Portugal's help in such fields as the judiciary, health and education.
De Mello said the 800-strong contingent of Portuguese troops to be based in the territory with international peacekeeping forces would include 300 specialists in reconstruction and public service work.
Gusmao said he and Sampaio had discussed education, which "is a basic fundamental of our development."
Lisbon has offered to help restore East Timor's education system by sending teachers and setting up a curriculum, Gusmao said.
The resistance movement has decided to adopt Portuguese as the new state's official language.
Sampaio later flew to Becora to meet Portuguese troops stationed there.
"This mission has a very special significance to Portugal and to its armed forces," Sampaio told about 140 Portuguese troops and some 40 Portuguese civilian police.
"They are coming back to East Timor within the United Nations to guarantee the security of the territory and to guarantee a peaceful independence. The security of the territory is the first condition to make possible reconciliation and rebuilding," he added.
Later the street in front of the Portuguese mission in Dili was renamed Avenida de Portugal and Sampaio met with mission staff for talks.