RI congratulates E. Timor president Xanana

RI congratulates E. Timor president Xanana

Agencies, Jakarta

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda congratulated East
Timor's first elected president Xanana Gusmao for his election
victory on Wednesday on behalf of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri and the Indonesian government.

"Mr. Xanana called Mr. Hassan at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, in
regard to the elections. During that telephone conversation, Mr.
Hassan congratulated him on behalf of the Indonesian government
and President," Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told
The Jakarta Post.

Marty added that Hassan also commended Xanana and the East
Timorese people, for the peaceful manner in which the elections
were held.

Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader, was on Wednesday declared
the landslide winner of East Timor's first presidential election,
the final step in the territory's long and bloody road to
nationhood.

East Timor will formally become the world's newest nation on
May 20 when the United Nations hands over administration to the
new government.

Hassan said earlier in the day that the Indonesian government
would keep its good relations with East Timor.

"We have been trying to build good relations with East Timor
and focusing on future orientation," Hassan told the press after
a meeting with legislators here.

In Canberra Australian Prime Minister John Howard
congratulated Gusmao, on Wednesday for his election win and
pledged continued Australian aid to the nascent state.

"I congratulate Xanana Gusmao on his election, it was not
surprising but it is an important moment and it is an occasion
for Australians to take a degree of pride in the role that we
played," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Howard said Australia would continue to do what it could to
support its fledgling neighbor and would continue to provide
soldiers in a support role as the traumatized nation struggled to
rebuild from its bloody independence vote in 1999.

"We'll continue to help it, we'll continue to have Australian
forces there for some time and we'll continue to contribute a lot
of aid in other forms," Howard said.

Australia led a UN-backed peacekeeping mission to East Timor
after pro-Jakarta militia went on a rampage in the wake of the
territory's August 1999 vote for independence.

Japan also welcomed Gusmao's victory and vowed to extend "as
much support as possible" to build what will be the world's
newest nation, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said.

In welcoming his victory, Russia also highlighted Gusmao's
"many years of struggle on behalf of East Timor's national
liberation" and wished him success, the Russian foreign ministry
said in Moscow.

The United States had earlier endorsed the election as
"orderly and peaceful".

"We strongly support their transition to independence," a
senior State Department official said late Tuesday before
Gusmao's victory was announced.

The United Nations Security Council also "warmly welcomed the
successful staging of East Timor's first ever presidential
elections".

"These elections represent a historic milestone on East
Timor's remarkable journey towards independence," council
president Sergei Lavrov said in a statement late Tuesday.

Gusmao will be sworn in as president by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan on May 19, in the final hours before the midnight
declaration of East Timor's independence.

At his home, future prime minister Mari Alkatiri, one of the
leaders of the ruling party Fretilin, with whom Gusmao has rocky
relations, congratulated him on Wednesday "from the bottom of my
heart".

He pledged to do all in his power to ensure smooth future
relations.

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta urged Gusmao to overcome the
acrimony between him and Fretilin leaders.

"I am thrilled and relieved that Xanana got such a huge vote
that gives him democratic legitimacy and a popular mandate,"
Horta told AFP by phone from Portugal.

"My only wish now is that (he) walk half-way and embrace the
Fretilin leadership."

The only sour note came from pro-Jakarta East Timorese militia
leader Eurico Guterres, who accused Gusmao of killing pro-
integration East Timorese in 1975, when Indonesia came in months
after Portuguese colonizers withdrew.

"I do not regard him as a good leader because he has committed
mistakes in the past by murdering many pro-integration East
Timorese who were his brothers in 1975," Guterres told AFP.

"And I think it's also due to the fact that he divorced his
East Timorese wife and married an Aussie woman," Guterres added.

Guterres said he would only congratulate Gusmao "if he can
successfully build East Timor."