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.