Republican News · Thursday 11 April 2002

Gusmao favourite in East Timor poll

East Timor is holding its first presidential election on Sunday 12 April 2002, and former guerrilla leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao is the overwhelming favourite to become the first elected president of the world's newest country.

The half-island territory of East Timor will become formally independent on 20 May, effectively ending nearly three years of UN administration. The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in a UN-organised referendum in August 1999 to end the 24 years of Indonesian military occupation that followed 350 years of Portuguese colonial rule.

The plebiscite was followed by a campaign of killing, burning and pillage by Indonesian troops and their militia supporters, revenge for the decision of the East Timorese to assert their independence from the tyrannical Indonesian state. It took a month of campaigning and demonstration by activists all around the world to get the UN and International community to send international peacekeepers to restore order and force the Indonesian military to vacate that part of the island.

The charismatic Gusmao is virtually assured victory in the presidential race. The only other candidate, veteran political leader Francisco Xavier do Amaral, has run a low key campaign and isn't expected to pose much of a challenge.

Do Amaral was appointed East Timor's first president in 1975, when the Portuguese colonial rulers pulled out. He served for only nine days before Indonesian forces invaded on 7 December 1975.

Gusmao, a former soccer player and journalist, joined the armed resistance against Indonesian rule and commanded the guerrilla forces in the 1980s. He was captured in 1992 and imprisoned in Jakarta for seven years. He is seen as a man of the people.

As the election campaign winds down, there have been reports of tensions between Gusmao and his former political party, Fretilin, which controls the legislature, as the presidential candidate has accused some unidentified government officials of leading lavish lifestyles while many East Timorese go without basic health care and education. Despite receiving millions of dollars in aid, nearly half the territory's people live in poverty.

Still, most observers believe the two camps will be able to work together. "We are optimistic and fully confident that East Timorese leaders will show the same maturity and confidence as they have done throughout this process," said UN political affairs chief Colin Stewart.

The biggest challenge facing the country of 650,000 people is setting up its political and legal infrastructure. In August 2001, voters elected an 88-member assembly to draft a constitution, which was officially approved last month.

The new constitution provides for a division of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The president's role is defined as largely symbolic, with the head of state dependant on the support of the political parties.

The constitution states that the predominantly Catholic country will not have an official religion and it guarantees freedom of the press. It provides for a politically neutral defence force.

Gusmao has addressed himself to thousands of refugees in neighbouring Indonesian West Timor, urging them to return home and guaranteeing their safety. As he arrived in West Timor, thousands of refugees lined the streets cheering. Most of the estimated 60,000 refugees still in West Timor fled there after militia-led violence that erupted after East Timor's vote for independence two and a half years ago.

Some of those in the refugee camps in West Timor have militia connections and fear retribution if they return to East Timor. Gusmao made it clear that only those accused of the most serious crimes, such as murder, torture and rape, would be expected to stand trial.

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Rwanda marks anniversary of genocide

The eighth anniversary of Rwanda's genocide is being marked by the reburial of the remains of some of the people killed during the three months of slaughter, which started in April 1994. An estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during the 100-day genocide, triggered when a plane carrying Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on 6 April 1994 as it approached Kigali's airport. The slaughter was stopped when the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front ousted the Hutu government on 4 July 1994.

After the genocide, many of the dead were hastily buried in mass graves to avoid the spread of disease. A reburial ceremony has taken place each year on the anniversary of the genocide in a different part of the country. Eight years after the bloodshed, President Paul Kagame - who led the Rwandan Patriotic Front - urged Rwandans to move past their differences and learn from the horrors of the genocide.

"We have to ask people... not to be held hostage to our history, but rather to learn from it, move forward and build a better future," Kagame said on Saturday. But with striking levels of poverty, the task is immense, he said.

The genocide shattered Rwanda's economy - it halved the country's gross domestic product and pushed the number of people living on less than a dollar a day to 70 percent of the population. Many of the country's skilled workers were killed or forced to flee, thousands of farms were abandoned or destroyed, banks were looted and the transportation system was decimated.

Although the economy has begun to recover - in 2001, it grew by a healthy 6 percent - the gains have been modest. Taxpayers are paying about $4.5 million a year for some 120,000 people detained in prison on charges connected to the genocide.

"It is now eight years since the Rwandan family killed its own" and wrecked the economy, said Culture Minister Francois Ngarambe. "Foreign nations will not prepare a plan for the reconstruction of Rwanda. We must struggle on our own."

Meanwhile, the trial of a former Rwandan colonel accused of masterminding the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in 1994 has been adjourned until September. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) say Colonel Theoneste Bagosora helped plan the Rwandan genocide. The prosecution believes the case - the first to bring a top military figure before the tribunal - could shed some light on how the Rwandan leadership plotted the killings.

When the trial opened on Wednesday 3 April, Colonel Bagosora refused to leave his cell and demanded access to key legal documents. His three co-defendants also boycotted the court.

The 61-year-old pleads not guilty to all 12 charges he faces, including genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide, in the court in Arusha, in northern Tanzania. Many survivors of the genocide have criticised the Arusha tribunal for the slow rate at which it is processing the trials.