Timor Lorosae people pray that independence will bring peace

Timor Lorosae people pray that independence will bring peace

Agencies, Dili, Timor Lorosae

The people of Timor Lorosae (which until Sunday evening known as East Timor) walked to church on Sunday for the last time as a people ruled by outsiders.

At sunrise every Sunday the waterfront capital of this staunchly Catholic half-island is a sea of people walking in their best clothes, under arches of bougainvillea and oleander trees, to the dozens of churches that grace Dili.

At midnight (10 p.m. Jakarta time), Timor Lorosae became the world's newest nation, but also one of its poorest. Illiteracy is estimated at 40 percent and unemployment at 70 percent.

"The spirit within us has emerged and with that spirit we can shine and stand alone," Dili's Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel peace laureate, said in his sermon.

"We celebrate this day of independence by thanking God. If God had not been with us, we could not have achieved it. We could not have survived."

At midnight Timor Lorosae's black, red and gold flag rose and its 750,000 people bid farewell to more than 450 years of foreign rule, including 32 months of United Nations stewardship, 24 years of brutal occupation by Indonesia, and over four centuries of Portuguese colonial domination.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will hand over authority to parliament leader Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, who will then proclaim independence and later swear in president-elect Xanana Gusmao.

Gusmao was scheduled to make an address at the independence ceremony, held on a lakeside flatland just west of Dili, before fireworks donated by China and Thailand illuminated the sky.

A song and dance performance by some 3,000 performers, orchestrated by the organizer of the Sydney 2000 Olympic's opening and closing ceremonies, would follow until the early hours of Monday.

The first foreign leader to land for ceremonies was Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Draped with a Timorese weaving over his shoulder, he told reporters he would appeal to the international community not to forget Timor Lorosae after midnight.

Also included on the guest list are former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Indonesia's dispatch of six naval vessels to the area as part of Megawati's visit. Indonesia's Timor Lorosae head of mission was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying on Sunday that only two of the vessels had entered Timorese waters.

As part of security and emergency medical plans, naval ships from the United States and France have also anchored off Dili.

With delegations on hand from 80 nations, officials have been trying to find all VIPs a bed and hot shower in this steamy tropical town, nestled at the base of rugged hills.

"Let us pray that our new leaders can carry our new independence with responsibility, so that we can live in peace and unity," Belo implored the 1,000 worshippers who packed the garden of his seaside residence for a Mass to herald the birth of their nation.

The Catholic Church was a bastion of independence support and clandestine activism during the guerrilla-led struggle against Indonesian rule, which ended with a bloody vote for independence in a United Nations-run ballot in August 1999.

It was in the sanctuary of this bishop's residence that hundreds of terrified refugees were attacked by Indonesian-army backed militiamen days after the landmark vote.

Several were killed here; in the months surrounding the UN-run ballot around 1,000 independence supporters in all were massacred, and the already impoverished territory was ravaged by militias as they unleashed an orgy of destruction.

Over the quarter century of Indonesian rule and the protracted guerrilla war against it, an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 East Timorese died.

Seated in the front row of the outdoor mass was Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel peace prize with Belo.

"I am humbled," he said of his emotions as the hour of independence, for which he campaigned internationally for 24 years, drew near.

His prayers were for peace, he said. "There cannot be anything more important than that."

Next to Ramos Horta was Francisco Xavier do Amaral, the man who first declared East Timor's independence and was president for nine days until Indonesian troops invaded on Dec. 7, 1975.

In the village of Hera, a 25-minute drive from Dili, more than 200 residents filled a church for a special mass. But people of the village, a burial ground for many victims of pro-Indonesian forces, were planning only quiet celebrations.