EAST TIMOR: East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta formally announces his intention to run for the Presidency in April's General Elections

Record ID: 644666

  • Title: EAST TIMOR: East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta formally announces his intention to run for the Presidency in April's General Elections
  • Date: 25th February 2007
  • Summary: (BN09) LAGA, BAUCAU, EAST TIMOR (FEBRUARY 25,2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS CONVOY OF SUPPORTERS OF PRIME MINISTER JOSE RAMOS-HORTA DRIVING THROUGH COUNTRY ROADS VARIOUS RAMOS-HORTA ARRIVING AT LAGA AND SUPPORTERS PLACING TRADITIONAL SCARF AROUND HIS NECK SUPPORTERS CARRYING EAST TIMOR AND UNDERTIM PARTY FLAGS RAMOS-HORTA SUPPORTERS STANDING IN RALLY RAMOS-HORTA WALKING ONTO OPEN-AIR STAGE VARIOUS RAMOS-HORTA SITTING ON STAGE ALONGSIDE DIGNITARIES RAMOS-HORTA SPEAKING INTO MICROPHONE AND ADDRESSING SUPPORTERS BANNER READING "UNDERTIM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE"
  • Embargoed: 12th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAXJMB0QI502X2PUFETMFLW7RA
  • Story Text: Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as East Timor's prime minister last year, formally announces his intention to run for the presidency in April's general elections.

    Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as East Timor's prime minister last year, formally announced on Sunday (February 25) he will run for the presidency in April's election.
    The announcement in front of about 2,000 supporters in the town of Laga came after he had told the Al Jazeera English satellite channel earlier this week he intended to be a candidate.
    "I chose Laga, one of the poorest town's in this country, to announce my candidacy because I spent many years here as a kid and I have been here many times over the years. I know many people, many people know me around the country," Ramos-Horta said.
    He called on the people of the tiny country of one million to use the chance to vote in the April 9 ballot and reminded them not to carry any weapons.
    In April 2006 the former Portuguese colony descended into chaos and violence following the sacking of 600 mutinous soldiers.
    Australia led a force of foreign peacekeepers into East Timor in late May which eventually brought a semblance of order, but sporadic clashes between youth gangs, acts of arson, and attacks on international peacekeeping military and police units have continued.
    Ramos-Horta said on Sunday his candidacy is for peace, reconciliation, understanding, the poor and justice.
    "If the country were free, prosperous, stable, I wouldn't run," he said, promising to state his electoral platform in writing so the public could see how "a president co-operates with the government, parliament and NGOs to help the poor."
    East Timor's current president, Xanana Gusmao, a hero of the fight against Indonesia in a near 25-year occupation that followed a Portuguese pull-out in 1975, has repeatedly said he would not run again.
    The dominant political party in parliament, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, or Fretilin, has already said it will put up a candidate.
    Both Ramos-Horta and Gusmao have historical ties to Fretilin, which has left-wing roots and was the major pro-independence organisation in the battle against Indonesian forces.
    But in recent years the two took a more independent path and are regarded as friendlier to Western countries and liberal economic policies than the older Fretilin stalwarts.
    East Timor is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.
    Then East Timor's foreign minister, Ramos-Horta took over as prime minister after Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri, broadly blamed for the civil violence, stepped down on June 26, 2006.
    The territory voted in a 1999 referendum for independence from Indonesia. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of U.N. administration.
    It is rich in offshore oil and natural gas resources, but is only beginning to develop them. In the meantime, most of its citizens rank among the world's poorest.
    Ramos Horta shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with fellow countryman Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for "efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people."
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