Easy Timor: Bishop calls for dialogue between people, politicians

Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese 1800 gmt 8 Jul 01

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 9, 2001

[Presenter] Antonio Veladas, RDP [state radio] correspondent in East Timor, reports on the national pact signed today by the majority of the political parties which will participate in the August parliamentary elections:

[Reporter] Politicians of East Timor have made a pact with its people by signing a national unity pact. Fourteen of the sixteen East Timorese political parties signed a non-violence pact which will be in force from the beginning of the campaign for the August [2001] elections. They have pledged to respect each other in order to elucidate the people and give them incentive to participate in the elections. Everyone expressed their wish for a participated democracy, in particular the [Catholic] Church, who has also launched an information campaign and called on the people to vote. Dom Ximenes Belo [bishop of Dili and Nobel Peace laureate in 1996] addressed the people in the Democracy Stadium [untraced, in Dili] on the subject of the construction of a solid democratic system and he also left a warning for the political parties:

[Belo] Those who will be elected, the future MPs, the future decision-makers must not have exclusive ownership of the judgment power expressed by the people. There must be a permanent dialogue between those who govern and those who are governed, and in certain cases, a direct consultation by means of a referendum.

[Reporter] The Bishop of Dili warned the politicians for the need to have a truly democratic state which will respect the decisions of the people of East Timor. Xanana Gusmao [former president of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance] also addressed the more than 15,000 people present in the stadium both as citizen and national leader and reiterated the words of D. Ximenes Belo by saying he will always be with the people defending the interests of the future nation.

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

July Menu
June
World Leaders Contact List
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu