Rebel leader surrenders arms to new East Timor PM

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

LIQUICA, East Timor, July 11 (Reuters) A rebel leader at the centre of allegations against East Timor's former prime minister laid down his arms today, a symbolic move aimed at building peace in Asia's newest nation.

Jose Ramos-Horta, who took over as Prime Minister yesterday, has pledged to restore security in the tiny, impoverished country after weeks of political crisis and violence.

Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was appointed after the June 26 resignation of Mari Alkatiri, who faces questioning over allegations of illegally arming of civilians.

''If there still are weapons in houses, do not hesitate to surrender those arms. We all need to collaborate to take those weapons from civilian hands,'' Ramos-Horta said in a speech during a ceremony in Liquica, 30 km (19 miles) west of the capital, Dili.

Ramos-Horta was handed a weapon, one of 14 surrendered, by rebel leader Vicente da Conceicao, who last month was on an Australian TV documentary that linked Alkatiri and other officials from the ruling Fretilin party to a plot to arm civilian militia.

The man popularly known as Commandante Railos, who had resisted Indonesian rule during Jakarta's occupation of East Timor, alleged Alkatiri and other officials had intended that civilian hit-squads be formed to attack their enemies.

The former premier has denied any link to the alleged plot.

''We don't need weapons. We need food, education, healthcare,'' said 56-year-old Ramos-Horta, formerly the foreign minister, who has pledged to improve the livelihood of his impoverished nation.

The weapons surrendered were later given to Australian commandos, part of a 2,500-strong international peacekeeping force that has provided security in East Timor since late May.

Small caches of illegal weapons have been trickling in over the past few weeks.

East Timor descended into chaos nearly three months ago when then-premier Alkatiri sacked about 600 members of the 1,400-strong army for protesting about discrimination.

President Xanana Gusmao named Ramos-Horta premier on Saturday, around two weeks after Alkatiri stepped down after being broadly blamed for the mayhem in the tiny Pacific nation.

When rival army and police factions clashed, the violence spiralled into arson and looting that ended only with the intervention of the Australian-led peacekeepers.

At least 20 people died and 100,000 were displaced in the violence.

East Timor was a Portuguese colony for centuries before a revolution in Lisbon in 1975 gave the territory a brief taste of independence. Indonesian troops invaded a few days later and Jakarta annexed East Timor in 1976.

After a 1999 vote for independence marked by violence blamed largely on pro-Jakarta militia with ties to the Indonesian army, an international peacekeeping force moved into the territory, ushering in a transitional period of UN administration. East Timor became a fully-fledged nation in 2002.

REUTERS PKS BD1708

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