DATE=8/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TIMOR / FIRST PARTY CONGRESS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265689
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: East Timor has taken (Monday) another
step toward becoming a fully independent nation
opening its first multi-party political congress.
As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, East
Timorese leaders marked the opening by calling
for unity across the territory.
TEXT: East Timorese independence leader Xanana
Gusmao has called on 450 congressional delegates
to "embrace democracy" in order to prepare for
self-rule. Mr. Gusmao also says it is time to
"lay safe foundations" for East Timor, which he
described as the "very first country of the 21st
century."
The nine-day congress has been organized by the
Timorese National Resistance Council. The C-N-R-
T is an umbrella group of pro-independence East
Timorese political parties that spearheaded
opposition to Indonesian occupation of the
territory.
The delegates are expected to determine what role
the C-N-R-T will play as East Timor forms a new
government and prepares to hold democratic
elections.
East Timor is now being administered by the
United Nations. It was almost one year ago that
an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voted
for independence in a U-N supervised ballot.
Indonesia had occupied East Timor for 24 years --
beginning after the 1975 invasion of the former
Portuguese colony.
But East Timor's independence celebrations were
short. In the days immediately after the ballot,
pro-Indonesia militias swept through East Timor
and laid much of the territory to waste. Hundreds
of people were killed, hundreds of thousands
forced to flee and much of the territory's
villages and towns destroyed.
Mr. Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader turned
political prisoner, is considered the most likely
choice to be East Timor's first president.
Meanwhile the United Nations has increased
security across the East Timorese capital, Dili,
to help ensure that pro-Jakarta militias do not
try to disrupt the C-N-R-T congress. (signed)
NEB/HK/PN/JO/KL
21-Aug-2000 07:33 AM EDT (21-Aug-2000 1133 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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