| Subject: E. Timor
struggle 'dark page in history' says Gusmao East
Timor struggle 'dark page in history' says Gusmao
DILI, East Timor, Oct 23 (AFP) - East Timor's independence
struggle would be remembered as "a dark page in history," resistance leader
Xanana Gusmao said Saturday, while offering an amnesty to pro-Jakarta militia as he set
about rebuilding his ravaged homeland.
Gusmao, who slipped back into East Timor on Thursday night
for the first time in seven years, said he had left the territory "as a guerrilla
fighter and returned as a guerrilla fighter."
East Timor was devastated when pro-Jakarta militiamen went
on a murderous rampage following the August 30 vote for independence, but Gusmao advised
against reflecting on the past.
"Once and for all we want to forget the past. All
we've been through and leave it behind as a dark page in history," he told a press
conference at the United Nations headquarters in Dili.
"If you keep remembering the past you are not able to
go ahead to the future."
But while offering militia members an amnesty, Gusmao said
it was subject to them confessing their crimes
"The only condition for them, the militia, to come
back is to accept with honesty that they must confess their crimes to the people.
"An amnesty is a fair political act," he said
Of his own future, Gusmao deflected questions about whether
he would be the first president of an independent East Timor as widely speculated.
"We'll have to wait and see," he said.
On the future of the National Council for Timorese
resistance (CNRT), Gusmao said: "The CNRT will be on hand whenever needed and play a
role whenever it becomes necessary."
Gusmao also revealed he had been in contact with senior
members of an Indonesian task force and their talks had been "cooperative."
"From both sides, the signs were that we can work
together and build confidence."
The resistance leader, who fought Indonesian troops for 25
years, was initially sentenced to life imprisonment after his arrest in 1992.
Earlier this year he was moved to house arrest as part of a
UN-sponsored deal to settle the conflict in East Timor. He was released last month after
the independence vote.
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