E. Timor Celebrates Its Birth

Formally ending more than four centuries of colonial rule, this tiny territory became a nation just after midnight as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan handed power to the country’s new president, Jose Alexandre Gusmao.

Tens of thousands of jubilant East Timorese gathered at a racetrack on the edge of Dili, the capital, to witness the hand-over ceremony early today and join in the celebration of East Timor’s long-sought independence after being ruled by Portugal and, more recently, nearby Indonesia.

“Today we are a people, standing on equal footing with all other people in the world,” the charismatic Gusmao told the crowd after he took the oath of office. “Today we rejoice as an independent nation, governing our own destiny.”

Representatives of more than 90 nations, including former U.S. President Clinton, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Australian Prime Minister John Howard, were on hand to observe the transfer of power.

Some of the biggest applause was reserved for Clinton, who supported the territory’s independence in 1999, and Megawati, whose presence at the ceremony was taken as a sign that East Timor and Indonesia can put their differences behind them.

“I salute you, people of East Timor, for the courage and perseverance you have shown,” Annan said shortly before the U.N. flag came down for the last time. “That a small nation is able to inspire the world and be the focus of our attention is the highest tribute that I can pay.”

East Timor, largely the eastern half of Timor island, was ruled by the Portuguese for more than 400 years. After Portugal withdrew in 1975, Indonesia invaded and claimed the territory. East Timorese say Indonesia killed 200,000 people during its 24-year occupation.

Resistance fighters, including Gusmao, took refuge in the jungle and waged a long-running guerrilla campaign against Indonesian rule.

In early 1999, then-Indonesian President B.J. Habibie agreed to let the U.N. conduct a referendum in East Timor, and that August, the people voted overwhelmingly for independence.

In response, militias organized by the Indonesian military laid waste to the territory, killing 1,000 people, destroying 70% of the buildings, and forcing 260,000 people to flee across the border into Indonesian West Timor.

A U.N. peacekeeping force led by Australia and aided by the United States landed in September 1999 and restored order. Since then, a U.N. transitional government has run the province, restoring basic services, building an army and police force, and paving the way for a new democratically elected government to take over.

The U.N. mission in East Timor has been one of the organization’s most successful efforts to help a war-ravaged nation. Some believe it could serve as a model for attempts at nation building elsewhere in the world.

“Never before has the world united with such firm resolve to help one small nation establish itself,” Annan told the Independence Day crowd.

While some East Timorese have resented the strong U.N. presence, most have welcomed the U.N.’s assistance and its effort to prepare the people to govern themselves.

“I’m very happy because we have been fighting for 500 years, and today we got our independence,” said Felix do Espirito Santo, 38, moments after Gusmao was sworn in as president. Now a manager of a courier company, Espirito Santo said he fought in the late 1970s with Falintil, the East Timorese guerrilla army.

The Indonesian military startled many East Timorese last week by docking a navy ship in Dili without permission. The ship ostensibly came to help prepare for Megawati’s visit. Five other Indonesian warships waited just offshore. East Timorese officials brushed aside the breach of protocol as unimportant but privately suggested that it was an effort by the Indonesian military to embarrass Megawati on the eve of her visit.

Although Megawati kept her East Timor visit to three hours, some of her nationalist-minded critics at home objected to her making the trip.

Wearing black, Megawati was met at the airport by Gusmao. They first went to pay their respects at a cemetery in Dili where Indonesian soldiers killed during the occupation are buried. Gusmao then escorted her onto the Independence Day stage to the cheers of the crowd. The Indonesian president looked slightly uncomfortable as Gusmao held her hand in the air, but the audience applauded every time her name was mentioned.

Earlier, Annan and Clinton both praised Megawati’s willingness to attend the event as an indication that the two countries can develop a new cooperative relationship. Annan called her participation in the celebration “a wise and courageous decision.”

Indonesia has been widely criticized by human rights advocates for its slowness in prosecuting top army officers and militia leaders now in Indonesia who are believed responsible for masterminding the 1999 East Timor carnage.

Earlier this year, the government convened a human rights tribunal in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and put five suspects on trial, including the former East Timor governor, Jose Abilio Soares, but no verdict has been reached.

East Timor has convicted 10 militia members for their role in the violence, but Gusmao has urged the new nation to focus on improving the life of its people, not on revenge. East Timor begins its independence as the poorest country in Asia and one of the poorest in the world.

Gusmao, who spent nearly seven years in an Indonesian prison, has called on his fellow East Timorese to forgive lower-level militia members involved in the 1999 destruction and accept them back into their communities.

Clinton, who was asked by President Bush to head the U.S. delegation to East Timor, compared Gusmao to former South African President Nelson Mandela, whose effort to bring together black and white South Africans after the end of apartheid was a model of reconciliation.

“The leaders and the people of East Timor ... have given all of us the chance to remember that freedom is precious and your freedom has been paid for by blood and sacrifice,” Clinton said upon his arrival earlier. After the independence ceremony, he presided over the opening of a new U.S. Embassy in Dili.

Clinton acknowledged to reporters that the United States provided military aid to Indonesia at a time when Jakarta was treating brutally the people of East Timor. “I don’t think we can defend everything we did,” he said.

Gusmao, commonly known as Xanana, also has reached out to Indonesia and sought to establish good relations with East Timor’s powerful neighbor. East Timor has a population of about 800,000 while Indonesia has 220 million people.

“Today we all agree that the strains in our dealings was a result of a historical mistake, which now belongs to history and to the past,” Gusmao told the crowd. “And this past ... should not continue to stain our spirits or to hamper our attitudes and conduct.”

With East Timor’s independence, Annan said the world body will reduce its level of commitment but has no intention of abandoning the country. For now, 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers will remain to help protect the border with Indonesia.