East Timor’s new president lauded the “maturity” of his young country’s democracy yesterday at celebrations marking 10 years of independence, which comes as UN forces prepare to leave at the end of the year.
“It was on this day 10 years ago that we took over the destiny of our country from the hands of the UN,” East Timorese President Taur Matan Ruak said in a speech, referring to the 1999 UN mandate that followed Indonesia’s 24-year occupation.
Ruak, a former guerrilla leader, spoke only hours after being sworn in shortly after midnight and said the peaceful elections he won testified to “the maturity of our democracy and bears witness to the stability” of East Timor, known as Timor-Leste in Portuguese.
Photo: EPA
His speech followed a minute of silence for fallen heroes of the resistance against Indonesian occupation, before invited guests who included Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and about 400 ordinary Timorese gathered outside the gates of the presidential palace in Dili.
After his speech, Ruak inaugurated a new Resistance Museum in the capital, saying now “our children will have the opportunity to learn about the most important legacy that previous generations have bequeathed unto them.”
The celebrations included traditional dances to be followed by an evening concert with local, Indonesian and Brazilian musicians.
In his inaugural speech earlier, Ruak urged his countrymen to work hard to lift the country out of poverty and turn the page on its bloody past.
East Timor, one of Asia’s poorest nations, has enjoyed several years of relative peace and is in a crucial period, with general elections due in July and UN forces stationed there since 1999 set to depart by the end of the year.
However, despite having left bouts of major unrest behind it, the half-island country of 1.1 million people remains hobbled by extreme poverty and corruption.
Ruak, 55, took over the presidency from Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta in an emotional ceremony at the beachfront area of Tasi Tolu near Dili, where East Timor declared its independence exactly 10 years ago.
“There was a time in the past when blood and fighting spirit was what was demanded from us,” the ex-army chief said, to loud applause from thousands of people. “Today, what is required from us is sweat and hard work.”
Ruak also called for the country to diversify its economy — more than 90 percent of state spending currently comes from oil and gas earnings.
“It is imperative to change the essence of the economic system on which the country is currently based,” he said at Tasi Tolu, calling for “the diversification of our economy” and “reducing our dependency from abroad and from oil.”
The nation first declared independence on Nov. 28, 1975, after Portugal ended four centuries of colonial rule, but was immediately invaded by Jakarta’s forces.
Up to 183,000 people died from fighting, disease and starvation under the Indonesian occupation.
Since independence, the nation has endured a political crisis in 2006 that killed 37 people and displaced tens of thousands, and Ramos-Horta was lucky to survive an assassination attempt in 2008.
“Our history is a narrative of struggles and of hard work,” said Ruak, who spent decades in the mountains fighting Indonesian forces.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS