Xanana goes 'from black to white'

Xanana goes 'from black to white'

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: A former fellow guerrilla fighter could hardly recognize visiting East Timor President Xanana Gusmao because of his changed complexion.

Antonio Pareira, 52, who has spent over three years at the Oebelo refugee camp here for pro-Indonesian East Timorese, was a member of a guerrilla unit that Xanana led between 1965 and 1978.

"We lived in the jungle then and Xanana's skin was very dark," Pareira said of the East Timor president, who was visiting the camp. "He is white now, maybe because now he spends his days in air-conditioned rooms."

"He used to be black just like me when we Fretellin guerrillas fought for independence," he said.

Xanana waged a guerrilla war for independence in the 1960s during the Portuguese colonial administration and after Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976. --Antara