Ramos-Horta, Xanana to stay on in CNRT

Ramos-Horta, Xanana to stay on in CNRT

DILI, East Timor (Agencies): In a dramatic turnaround, East Timor independence leader Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta vowed on Sunday to stay on at the head of the territory's main political grouping.

Earlier the same day, they said they would leave their posts as president and co-vice president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), an umbrella organization of competing pro-independence groups.

Gusmao, 54, who for close to two decades was East Timor's top freedom fighter, had Sunday told the first congress of the CNRT here that he was quitting the organization of which he was president, arguing it was now time for younger people to take up the leadership.

"We need renewed energy. We need new faces ... to lead this process forward," Gusmao told about 350 delegates from political parties and social organizations.

But after listening to impassioned pleas from the floor of a meeting of the council, they changed their minds.

"I will remain, as it is apparently what the people want," Ramos-Horta said, "And Xanana, he will stay as well."

"He has accepted the decision of the people to go back (to CNRT)," Ramos-Horta said. Gusmao could not be immediately reached for comment.

"The position is obvious. He (Gusmao) is president," added Ramos-Horta, the CNRT's globe-trotting chief diplomat. He said the CNRT "cannot afford the luxury of having a particular group every once in a week challenging the leader." He gave no further details.

Many people in the half-island territory believe that Gusmao, a charismatic guerrilla leader imprisoned by Indonesian occupiers for about a decade, will become East Timor's first president when independence finally arrives.

Hundreds of people died and much of the half-island territory was devastated when anti-independence militias and Indonesian soldiers went on a rampage after the territory voted overwhelmingly for independence in a United Nations sponsored referendum last year.

Order was restored only after an international peacekeeping force arrived and Indonesian troops withdrew. East Timor and its 600,000 people are preparing for full independence under a transitional UN administration.

The council, which has bogged down in infighting as it attempts to draft a new political system for the territory, is scheduled to elect a new leadership this week.

Both Gusmao and Ramos-Horta are known to be unhappy about growing factionalism within the group.

Gusmao, whose casual checked shirt matched his relaxed speaking style, said East Timorese must approach their new struggle to build a viable nation with the same intensity of purpose they showed in battling the Indonesians.

"Unfortunately, some negative aspects are now starting to show up and some among us look at ourselves as being absolutely indispensable," he said, speaking beneath banners that depicted clasped hands and called for unity.

Gusmao had the previous Sunday already quit as commander of the Falintil guerrilla army which he led for more than 19 years.

The territory is set to celebrate the first anniversary of the Aug. 30 vote, in which East Timorese overwhelmingly opted for independence from Indonesia which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

As a member of CNRT, Gusmao sat with officials of the United Nations Transitional Administration (UNTAET) on the National Consultative Council, a policy-making body for the territory which has been under UN administration since October.

CNRT's congress, which began last Monday, has been discussing the organization's future role as well as the proposed national and international policies of an independent East Timor.

Gusmao has hailed the congress discussions, on everything from clove production to tourism and health, as a first step on East Timor's journey toward a multi-party democratic state. The congress ends Tuesday.