Word: horta
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...earth policy in 1999; last year 37 people died and more than 150,000 fled their homes as tensions between the local police and military erupted. But last week it appeared some Timorese were still willing to make mischief to further their political ambitions. On Monday, President Jose Ramos-Horta announced the appointment as Prime Minister of former resistance fighter Xanana Gusmão, who leads a coalition made up of his own party, the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor, the Timorese Social Democratic Association, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Party. The coalition holds...
...Within minutes of Ramos-Horta's announcement Fretilin activists, most of them from Timor's eastern provinces, poured into the streets from their refugee camps dotted around the capital, Dili. They set up barricades of tires, stones and bushes wherever roads bordered the camps, and from behind them launched rock attacks on passing cars. In the grounds of Dili hospital, Fretilin supporters living in tents pitched in the grassy courtyards between the wards emerged to taunt westerners living nearby. As the shouting turned into fighting, UN police, New Zealand soldiers and Portuguese Republican National Guard with riot gear and bullet...
...arming a hit squad in the lead-up to last year's unrest. And just before the June election, the Fretilin-controled parliament voted to grant amnesties or reduce sentences for serious crimes relating to the violence of 2006, although the resolution was never signed into law by Ramos-Horta. Fretilin's political opponents accuse the party of fomenting violence to achieve their political ends, but Fretilin denies the claims, conceding only that it struggles to control some of its angry supporters. NGO head Samson is unconvinced. "They are worried about what the new government will do," he says. "They...
...chances may be boosted by the fact that Nobel Peace Prize laureate José Ramos-Horta, a Gusmão ally, fended off the Fretilin candidate to assume the post of President...
...With a grin, Ramos-Horta goes on to argue that even after 60-odd years of independence from the Dutch, the Indonesians themselves have yet to build a rock-solid nation-state. "Nation-building is a slow, laborious process," he says. "The biggest mistake foreign observers made was thinking that things could be done overnight in East Timor. It will take time, effort and lots of work." Just a year ago, both Ramos-Horta and Gusmão had hinted that they might retire from politics - and give the younger generation a chance to govern. Now, it appears, both aren...