World

Timor Rebel Chief Goes Home

October 22, 1999 / 6:13 AM EDT / AP

In an overwhelmingly emotional homecoming, exiled guerrilla chieftain Jose Alexandre Â"XananaÂ" Gusmao returned to his ravaged capital Friday and was greeted by a crowd of thousands who wept, cheered and roared: Â"Viva East Timor!Â"

The arrival of the charismatic rebel leader, who is likely to become East Timor's first president, is for many here the most powerful symbol yet of the territory's coming independence, and of an end to its bloody quarter-century struggle to break free of Indonesia.

Â"We have shown the whole world, we have shown Indonesia, we have shown ourselves that we have the courage to fight for independence for 25 years,Â" Gusmao, bareheaded and clad in military fatigues, told a crowd of about 5,000 ragged people packed into a seaside plaza in front of the whitewashed, Portuguese colonial-era governor's office.

Â"It has been a very difficult struggle,Â" said the 53-year-old rebel leader with graying hair and beard, often sounding and looking on the verge of tears. Â"Our sorrow has lasted too long.Â"

Many in the crowd wept with him, but jubilation predominated. People danced up and down with excitement, held up children to catch a glimpse of Gusmao, and waved the parasols they had brought to shield themselves from the blazing sun. Old women pounded on homemade drums to celebrate.

Gusmao, who was secretly flown back into East Timor on Thursday night by the peacekeeping forces who arrived a month ago, urged the world to help rebuild the province, which was devastated in a rampage by Indonesian forces and their militia allies after it voted for independence.

Â"There is much to do to recover, to save our homeland, to save ourselves,Â" he told the crowd, speaking in the indigenous Tetum language. Â"All of us must try to let go of the bad things they have done to us. Tomorrow is ours.Â"

Ordinary East Timorese learned of his arrival just two hours before he spoke, when loudspeaker trucks drove through the city streets announcing he would give a speech.

People streamed toward the seafront plaza on scooters, on foot and in ramshackle trucks and cars, but many were still arriving when the 25-minute speech ended.

Gusmao was flown from Darwin, Australia, to East Timor Thursday night and then ferried by helicopter to Dili.

Gusmao's arrival comes two days after the Indonesian parliament endorsed the results of East Timor's independence referendum, effectively relinquishing control of the province.

In other developments Friday, peacekeepers moved for the first time into the enclave of Oecussi, detaining 40 militiamen and seizing weaponry, Cosgrove said without specifying the number of troops deployed. Rebels have reported a spree of militia violence and killings in the enclave, which is cut off by sea and West Timorese territory from the rest of East Timor.

Nearly 2,000 refugees arrived today just after dawn aboard the first shp to carry displaced East Timorese back from West Timor. Humanitarian officials said they hoped it was the first of what will be a mass influx by ship of the estimated quarter-million refugees in West Timor.

About 9,500 have returned so far by ship, plane and overland.