| Subject: Gusmao
rules out bid for East Timor presidency
Gusmao rules out bid for East Timor
presidency
DILI, East Timor, Dec 31 (AFP) - East
Timor's leader Xanana Gusmao said here Friday that he foresaw the
territory obtaining full independence in at most two years and said he did
not plan to become its first president.
"I will not be standing as a
candidate for presidency. It is not an obligation," he said.
Gusmao, who had been widely expected to
become the first leader of an independent East Timor, said his stance was
intended as a signal that leaders of the independence struggle did not
have an automatic right to power in the new country.
In a year-end speech, Gusmao unveiled a
three-stage plan for the first 25 years of the next century prepared by
the National Resistance Council of East Timor (CNRT), which he heads.
The first stage, which he called
"Stage A" consisted of "a one to two year transition to
independence," Gusmao said.
The UN Transitional Authority in East
Timor (UNTAET) which took over the authority over East Timor from the
Indonesian government in October has estimated that independence would
come only in two to three years.
Gusmao said that the transition to
independence will encompass two essential aspects.
"The technical training of East
timorese with the support of UNTAET and which will commence with the
physical reconstruction of basic infrastructure and the process of
political maturation of the Timorese society, the responsibility for which
rests with the CNRT," he said.
Gusmao said that the second stage of the
plan, "Stage B" will last some 10 to 15 years "during which
the national development strategy will be implemented.
The third and last stage, "Stage
C" will be for the consolidation of independence, he said.
Gusmao also pledged that the CNRT would
work to establish East Timor as a democratic state. "True development
cannot exist in the absence of true democracy," Gusmao said.
But he also warned that, "I think,
essentially, that we, the East Timorese people, have to start thinking
about the possibility of failure in our independence process."
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