Timor Activist Ends His Exile From Indonesia

After the Indonesian government dropped its long-standing ban against him, East Timorese independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta returned to Indonesia on Saturday for the first time in 24 years.

Ramos-Horta arrived on an afternoon flight from Singapore and was immediately whisked to an airport hotel where he and another prominent independence leader, Jose Alexandre “Xanana” Gusmao, participated briefly in talks aimed at bringing peace to their troubled homeland.

Ramos-Horta made no statement to reporters on his arrival at the airport in Jakarta, the capital, in keeping with his pledge to Indonesian authorities to keep a low profile. But en route from Singapore, he appeared to be overcome by emotion, saying that he most looked forward to reuniting with Gusmao.

For nearly a quarter-century, the two men waged a common struggle from different battlefields. Gusmao went to the mountains where he became a guerrilla leader and, later, a prisoner for his cause. Ramos-Horta fled abroad, where he walked the halls of Western capitals and eventually shared a Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts.

The men have been in almost daily telephone contact for the past year but were unable to meet because Gusmao is serving a 20-year prison sentence under house arrest and Ramos-Horta was barred from the country. That two men once considered subversives could be reunited in a Jakarta hotel is further evidence of the changes underway here since Indonesia jettisoned authoritarianism last year and began moving toward a more democratic, open society.

The two men were to meet again Saturday evening at Gusmao’s prison bungalow.

Their reunion came as their long-sought goal--an independent East Timor--appeared within reach. Ex-President Suharto, who engineered the December 1975 invasion of the former Portuguese colony, resigned last year, and his successor, B.J. Habibie, has agreed to let Timorese residents decide their future in a referendum sponsored by the United Nations.

The referendum, initially scheduled for Aug. 8, has been postponed to later that month.