CNRT to be disbanded after E. Timor independence: Gusmao Kyodo News

DILI, May 12 --

East Timor leader Xanana Gusmao told Japanese reporters Friday the National Council of the Timorese Resistance ( CNRT ) will be disbanded after the territory gains independence.

Gusmao said a multiparty political system will be introduced to East Timor, which is in the process of nation-building under the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The CNRT an independence umbrella body of various political parties and organizations will break up, he added.

"Entities comprising the CNRT will pursue their own interests."

The CNRT , headed by Gusmao, is expected to decide on its post-independence policy at a general meeting set for August.

Gusmao said trust from the international community is pivotal for the territory to become politically and economically successful as an independent country and that CNRT will conduct organizational reform to form an effective partnership with UNTAET.

Gusmao also said he has contacted leaders of pro-Jakarta militias, who favored East Timor's annexation by Indonesia, to set up public meetings among residents and provincial leaders to promote reconciliation and social reconstruction.

The meeting is aimed at realizing complete return of some 100,000 East Timor refugees from Indonesia's West Timor, he added.

Many of the refugees fled or were herded into West Timor amid a rampage of looting, arson and killings by militias and some parts of the Indonesian military that devastated the territory after the Aug. 30 referendum in which an overwhelming majority of East Timorese voted to become independent.

"I have been asked by (Indonesian) House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tanjung what I seek (as compensation) and I said I will forget all to form new relationship," Gusmao told reporters.

Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975 and annexed it as its 27th province July 17, 1976.

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