| Subject: LUSA: Gusmão meets Catholic
demonstrators, predicts solution to crisis
East Timor: Gusmão meets Catholic demonstrators, predicts solution to
crisis
Dili, April 28 (Lusa) - President Xanana Gusmão visited hundreds of
Catholic demonstrators demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Mari
Alkatiri Thursday, appealing for moderation and forecasting that the
10-day-old crisis threatening East Timor's government could be approaching
an end.
Gusmão, making his first appearance before the 10-day-old
demonstration, said there were "signs about the possibility of
finding a solution" for the power struggle pitting the influential
Catholic Church against Alkatiri's cabinet.
The president's remarks to the crowd of some 2,000 protesters outside
Dili's government headquarters were interspersed by chants of "Down
with Alkatiri" from the demonstrators.
Gusmão later told journalists he might return to the round-the- clock
demonstration at an unspecified date with the country's two bishops to ask
the protesters to return to their homes.
Foreign Minister José Ramos Horta accompanied the president, who was
joyfully welcomed by the crowd, on his visit to the protesters.
Earlier Thursday, Alkatiri met with Gusmão to discuss the crisis
triggered by the government's decision to demote religion classes in
public schools to the status of an optional subject.
The prime minister, whose resignation has been the main demand of the
church-organized protests, told journalists he was upbeat about a
consensual solution.
Confirming he had held unannounced talks with Bishops Alberto Ricardo
da Silva and Basílio do Nascimento Wednesday, Alkatiri described the
encounter as "dialogue" because "there are no negotiations
among friends".
"We deeply discussed some issues and reached the conclusion that
all the conditions exist to overcome all the existing problems", he
added.
A government source, asking to remain unidentified, told Lusa the
cabinet was ready to suspend its trial program at 32 schools to offer
religion classes as an optional subject.
The curriculum change sparked a virulent war of words between the
church and the government two months ago, gradually escalating to Catholic
demands for the resignation of Alkatiri, the son of a Muslim family in the
overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.
EL/SAS.
Lusa
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