DATE=9/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=GUSMAO RELEASE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253535
BYLINE=BRONWYN CURRAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao
is free. He has been released from seven years in
jail in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta and handed
over to the United Nations. Bronwyn Curran, in
Jakarta, reports Mr. Gusmao is now in the British
Embassy, deciding his next move.
TEXT: The man who led East Timor's guerilla
insurgency against Indonesian rule until his capture
by the military in 1992, is a free man.
He was taken from house arrest Tuesday and formally
handed over to the United Nations in a ceremony at the
Ministry of Justice.
Mr. Gusmao then went directly to the British Embassy
in central Jakarta.
The former guerilla leader has refused a government
proposal to return him immediately to East Timor -
which is now under a state of emergency - on the
grounds he could be killed.
Mr. Gusmao has been offered sanctuary in Australia and
the United States. His lawyers say he has not yet
made a decision, but it is unlikely he will leave
Jakarta this week.
After the official ceremony at the Justice Ministry,
Mr Gusmao thanked the Indonesian government as well as
his supporters and vowed to bring peace to his
terrorized homeland.
///GUSMAO ACT ///
I want to thank to the international community, to the
governments, and all people who supported me, and
demanded for my release.
I promise as a free man I will do everything to bring
peace to East Timor and to my people.
Thank-you very much for following East Timorese, East
Timor situation, I thank you friends of media. Thank-
you.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Gusmao has been serving a 20-year sentence,
charged with plotting against the state and firearms
offenses.
In January this year, following President B-J
Habibie's decision to allow East Timor a referendum on
independence, Mr. Gusmao was moved from Cipinang
Prison to house arrest nearby.
He has been asking the Indonesian government to
release him ever since, both so he could participate
in the campaign prior to the autonomy vote and to help
bring calm to the troubled territory.
His freedom request was only granted after the
announcement of the ballot results Saturday, when the
government proposed to hand him over directly to the
unarmed, United Nations mission in East Timor, which
was besieged by anti-independence militias.
Mr. Gusmao met with Justice Minister Muladi Monday to
demand he be handed over to U-N officials in Jakarta
instead.
Subsequently President Habibie approved an immediate
amnesty for the independence leader.
At the official hand-over, Justice Minister Muladi
said the government hopes Mr. Gusmao will not leave
Indonesia. Before departing in the company of his
lawyer, Portugal's representative to Indonesia, and a
U-N official, Mr. Gusmao hugged Mr. Muladi, in whose
hands his fate rested until Tuesday. (SIGNED)
NEB/BC/FC/PLM
07-Sep-1999 04:07 AM EDT (07-Sep-1999 0807 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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