Word: gusmao
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...woman in black is waiting for him. Xanana Gusmao, East Timor's poet-revolutionary and de facto leader, is working his way through a crowd of admirers. When he reaches her, she throws her arms around him and sobs uncontrollably on his shoulder. Her husband and brother were killed by the Indonesian-backed militia last September--what should she do with her five children? Gusmao holds her for a very long time, all the while talking in a low, soothing voice. Then he reaches up and gently wipes tears from the woman's face, kisses her on both cheeks...
...Gusmao's life is full of such powerful moments these days. Minutes later the crowd has raised him on their shoulders, and Gusmao is pumping his followers up again with his trademark rallying cry: "Viiiiva East Timorrrr! Viiiiva independencia...
...What's behind the current violence? The Timorese have bitterly resisted the Indonesian invasion over the past 24 years, and the territory was never fully pacified. Timorese such as guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winners Jose Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo have fought for independence throughout Indonesia's occupation. Indonesia is estimated to have killed as many as 100,000 Timorese in its failed attempts to colonize East Timor...
...referendum on self-rule. "We, the East Timorese, are offering an olive branch to Indonesia," Ramos-Horta told TIME last week, describing the process as a way for Indonesia to save face and regain respect. He says his share of the $1.1 million award should have gone to Xanana Gusmao, the Fretilin leader jailed by Indonesia in 1993. Ramos-Horta says Gusmao will determine how the money is spent, though that could prove tricky since the guerrilla leader is being held incommunicado on a 20-year commuted sentence...
...some 200 protesters in 1991, Belo loudly called for a commission of inquiry. He has said the Indonesian military had planned, but failed, to assassinate him twice, in 1989 and 1991. But he has also condemned Fretilin for the massacres it led in 1975, which he blames squarely on Gusmao...