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."