Subject: Indonesia welcomes Gusmao as new East Timor PM

Also AN: RI, T-L to Maintain Harmonious Cooperation

Indonesia welcomes Gusmao as new East Timor PM

JAKARTA, Fri.:

Indonesia today welcomed the swearing-in of East Timor's new prime minister Xanana Gusmao, who had led a resistance movement against Jakarta during its 24-year occupation of the tiny nation. Jakarta ruled East Timor after invading in 1975, but guerrillas waged battle against Indonesian forces until the East Timorese voted to break away in 1999. The country formally gained independence in 2002.

The Indonesian government welcomes the assignment of Xanana Gusmao as prime minister," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said.

We hope that both countries will continue to cooperate and improve their bilateral relations," he told reporters.

Gusmao was captured by Indonesian forces, accused of subversion and jailed in 1992. He continued, however, to direct the resistance movement from behind bars in Jakarta and was freed in 1999, a year after the fall of dictator Suharto ushered in a new era of democracy for Indonesia, and just hours after his compatriots voted for independence. Gusmao was voted in as president of the impoverished nation in 2002. He stepped down earlier this year after starting a new political party ahead of June's elections, in which no party won the absolute majority needed to govern.

Gusmao's party formed a coalition in the wake of the polls with the necessary majority, and East Timor's new president Jose Ramos-Horta appointed Gusmao to his new job this week.

The move triggered violence from those sympathetic to the former ruling party, Fretilin, which has labelled the new administration illegal.

Legowo said that Indonesia hoped the new Timorese government could calm the sporadic unrest which has hit in Dili and several other towns.

What happened there is fully a domestic affair... but we do hope that the Timorese government can immediately settle the problem," he said.

The period around East Timor's 1999 referendum was marred by an orgy of violence and destruction that left an estimated 1,400 people dead. It was blamed largely on militias backed by the Indonesian military.

East Timor's leaders have taken a largely conciliatory stand towards its more powerful neighbour since independence, arguing it must be practical and push relations forward. - AFP

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RI, TIMOR LESTE TO MAINTAIN HARMONIOUS COOPERATON: ENVOY

08/10/2007 08:54:35 PM EDT

Antara

Atambua, E Nusa Tenggara, Aug 10 (ANTARA): Indonesian Ambassador to Timor Leste Ahmad S Bey has said Indonesia would continue to cooperate with Timor Leste, no matter who is in power in that neighboring country.

"As neighboring countrires, Timor Leste and Indonesia would continue to cooperate harmoniously, no matter who are in power in these two countries," the ambassador said on Friday through the phone in Dili.

He said that Timor Leste's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, President Ramos Horta and all Timor Leste's state officials all understood the importance of maintaining good relations of the two neigboring countries.

The Ambassador said that the peoples of the two countries co-existed and nutually depended, particularly those staying in the border areas of the two nations.

He said that both sides had tried to build good relations and resolve their residual problems well.

Bey said that provisions on trade and border arrangements had yet to be regulated in detail but it would be finished in time later on.

"We will regulate later whether border crossers would use a border pass. We will discuss its mechanism together," he added.

As an Indonesian representative in Timor Leste, the ambassador welcome the implementation of democratic elections in that country, saying he could understand the differences among factions that surfaced in the former Indonesian province.

"I am convinced they would eventually come to a convergence of views to solve their differences," he added.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)

10-08 2007


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