East Timor begins building a nation
DILI, East Timor (AP) – In its first day as an independent nation Monday, East Timor swore in a new Cabinet and signed a key oil treaty with Australia. The people danced in the streets and staged a jubilant parade in a euphoric celebration of their nation’s birth. The United States swiftly established full diplomatic relations with the new nation on Monday and said an ambassador would be named to head the U.S. Embassy.
“The United States looks forward to working with the people and government of the Democratic Republic of East Timor to foster the growth of democracy and prosperity in the first nation of the new millennium,” Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said in Washington.
Former President Clinton raised the American flag at the new U.S. Embassy in the seaside capital of Dili – and while doing so acknowledged that the United States’ record in East Timor has been less than sterling.
Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio inaugurated an independence monument featuring the East Timorese flag – a white star on a background of black, yellow and red – surrounded by 13 pillars representing the new country’s 13 districts.
Yet the joy at triumphing over centuries of brutal occupation was tempered by the challenges ahead: East Timor is among the world’s poorest nations, and sovereignty will mean little unless living standards can be raised.
“The work has just begun for us,” declared the country’s new president, Xanana Gusmao, a 55-year-old poet and former guerrilla fighter who spent seven years in jail and under house arrest.
One of the new government’s first acts Monday was to sign a treaty with Australia dividing revenues from oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea 90-10 in East Timor’s favor.
The reserves are expected to bring the nation of 800,000 people about $7 billion dollars over the next 20 years. But the revenue is not expected to kick in until 2005, and in the meantime East Timor will depend on foreign aid to make ends meet in a nation where 40 percent of the people are illiterate and 70 percent are unemployed.
The Connecticut-sized country’s struggle for independence was ultimately obtained at the behest of the international community.
The United Nations took control of the territory in 1999, when East Timor’s people voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a U.N. sponsored vote that resulted in a bloody rampage by the Indonesian military and its anti-independence proxies. The onslaught laid waste to much of the territory and killed hundreds.
Early Monday, the U.N. flag went down and the East Timorese flag was raised in a ceremony featuring an elaborate fireworks display, traditional dances and a tribute to resistance heroes with hundreds of East Timorese marching into an outdoor arena with candles.
Several hundred soldiers from East Timor’s new defense force joined former veterans of the resistance in a parade to commemorate their independence struggle.
Hundreds of people crowded in front of the former Portuguese colonial palace in Dili to watch Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri swear in 23 Cabinet ministers and state secretaries.
“We have to create a solid, transparent and good government,” said Alkatiri after the ceremony, adding that the new government would focus on reconciliation with East Timor’s former occupier, Indonesia.
Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor in 1975 after Portugal, which had ruled the territory for nearly four centuries, abruptly withdrew. Tens of thousands of people perished during Indonesia 24-year occupation through starvation, forced migration and murder.
Yet East Timor’s new leaders are going out of their way to establish a good relationship with Indonesia.
President Gusmao missed much of the independence ceremony, choosing instead to accompany Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on a visit to the graves of Indonesian soldiers killed in East Timor.
Megawati, a longtime opponent of East Timorese independence, attended the celebrations anyway – provoking criticism from hard-line lawmakers at home.
In East Timor’s new parliament building Monday, speaker Francisco Guterres inaugurated the 88-member assembly in front of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In their first act, the legislature voted to sign the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and become the newest member of the 189-strong world body later this year.
Clinton was asked about U.S. support for the Indonesian military regime that invaded East Timor.
“I don’t believe America or any of the other countries were sufficiently sensitive in the beginning or for a long time,” said Clinton.
Recently declassified U.S. documents have revealed that former President Gerald Ford and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave ex-Indonesian dictator Suharto the green light to invade East Timor before he sent in troops.