Timor Leste – a decade on
Ex-guerilla sworn in as president amid celebrations
DILI: Former guerilla leader and ex-army chief Taur Matan Ruak was sworn in as Timor Leste’s new president as the young democracy, devastated by decades of conflict, celebrates 10 years of independence.
Ruak takes over from Jose Ramos-horta, a Nobel laureate whose international stature injected prominence to the largely ceremonial role, ahead of independence day celebrations today.
Police tightened security in the streets of the capital here ahead of the ceremonies, where invited guests include Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Australia’s governor-general and Portugal’s president.
Last-minute preparations included workers cleaning the road to the airport and weeding streetside flowerbeds as children sold flags to passing cars.
Some children were seen waving portuguese flags – a reminder of the nation’s colonial past.
This is a crucial year for the country of 1.1 million.
It will choose a new prime minister and government in general elections on July 7, then at year’s end will bid goodbye to UN forces stationed since 1999.
Ruak took over from Ramos-horta at 11.30pm (10.30pm Malaysian time) yesterday.
Ruak, 55, won a run-off election last month that was widely lauded as peaceful and fair.
He takes over a country that is hobbled by extreme poverty, corruption and an over-reliance on energy revenues.
But the unstable nation has now enjoyed several years of peace.
“I would sum up the challenges and two priorities of our country as security and the well-being and prosperity of our people,” Ruak said.
“This is what people voted for and yearn for as demonstrated in the elections.”
The UN has said that peacekeepers, stationed since 1999, will pull out as planned by year’s end if the general elections are also peaceful.
The former Portuguese colony voted for independence in a Un-supervised referendum in 1999, after Indonesia’s 24-year occupation had left up to 183,000 people dead from fighting, disease and starvation. — AFP