East Timor swears in Ramos-Horta as new president

DILI, May 20 (Reuters) Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's newly elected president, took the oath of office at a simple ceremony in Dili today, as fresh violence erupted in the troubled country.

Ramos-Horta, who spent years abroad as a spokesman for East Timor's struggle for independence from Indonesian occupation, succeeds Xanana Gusmao after winning nearly 70 per cent of the votes in a May 9 election run-off.

His victory has raised hopes of greater stability in a nation still struggling to heal divisions five years after it won independence from Indonesia.

Ramos-Horta, 57, vowed to guarantee East Timor's stability at the swearing-in, held at the heavily guarded national parliament building. The two-hour ceremony was attended by parliament members, diplomats and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.

''I will ... obey the constitution to guarantee national unity and the stability of the nation,'' said Ramos-Horta, dressed in a formal jacket.

''As a new president ... I will follow the steps of outgoing president Xanana Gusmao to realise peoples' dreams ... I will find a way to end the crisis in the country.'' In a speech delivered in four languages -- East Timor's national language Tetum, Portuguese, English and Indonesian -- Ramos-Horta urged street gangs to end all violence ''because it just destroys the nation''.

VIOLENCE But hours after he was sworn in, one person was killed and two were injured in a clash between street gangs throwing rocks at each other, police said. Police also arrested over 40 people in connection with the violence.

Violence erupts sporadically in East Timor, but the run-off between Ramos-Horta and parliament chief Francisco Guterres, President of the dominant Fretilin party, went off peacefully.

Clashes between gangs and martial arts groups have erupted recently, although East Timor was calm just before the swearing-in with local and UN police stepping up patrols.

Ramos-Horta took over as prime minister last year from a Fretilin leader who had been blamed for failing to control riots that spun into deadly violence in which some 30 people died.

Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1975 after long-time colonial power Portugal had set it free.

Pictures at the time show Ramos-Horta, an anti-colonial journalist and activist under Portuguese rule, as a fatigue-wearing rebel with bushy black hair.

Today, with his short greying hair and spectacles, he has an almost academic air.

Although he shares revolutionary roots with the Fretilin party, Ramos-Horta has taken an increasingly independent path and is seen as somewhat more friendly than Fretilin stalwarts to international investment and the West.

Fluent not just in Tetum but in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English, Ramos-Horta lobbied foreign leaders to highlight East Timor's plight under Jakarta's often brutal rule.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1996 and returned to East Timor in 1999 after two decades abroad.

East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a violence-marred referendum in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration.

REUTERS SR RAI2036