DAS AGÊNCIAS NOTICIOSAS INTERNACIONAIS - 18 de Abril 2007

AFP – Wednesday, 18 April, 2007, 08:32 AM

Militias may be granted amnesty if they ‘confess’

Kupang, Indonesia: Militia members responsible for a wave of killings in East Timor in 1999 may be granted amnesties in return for confessions, officials from a commission examining the violence said yesterday.
Indonesian-East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission members said the amnesties were an attempt to encourage the perpetrators to come forward, confess their roles in the unrest and reveal where victims had been buried.
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Violence erupted in East Timor in 1999 around a UN-administered referendum for independence, which the tiny nation chose following 24 years of occupation by neighbouring Indonesia. Militia gangs, which the UN says were recruited and directed by Indonesia’s military, killed about 1,400 people and destroyed much of the infrastructure in the former Portuguese colony.

Commission member Olandina Cairo said many East Timorese were open to the amnesty idea after the plan was discussed recently at public forums. “The people of East Timor are open to forgiveness, so (the commission) hopes the rights violators will confess to the killings and clarify where the bodies were buried,” said Cairo in Kupang, West Timor.

Cairo said most of those involved had been part of the pro-Indonesian militias, and were now living on the Indonesian side of Timor island.

A commissioner from Indonesia, Anton Sujaka, said the commission “may recommend amnesty to rights violators and rehabilitation to victims.”

Sujaka told journalists here the commission - which aims to establish the truth about the violence - was currently verifying testimony given at its hearings.

The 10-member commission, which Indonesia and East Timor formed in 2005, plans to collect testimony from 70 people by June after hearings started in February. Indonesia’s president at the time, BJ Habibie, has given evidence.

An Indonesian rights court set up to try military officers and officials f
or atrocities in East Timor was widely condemned as a sham for failing to jail any Indonesians.
The impoverished state held its first presidential vote since independence on April 9. A run-off vote with two leading candidates will be held next month.

AFP – Wednesday, 18 April, 2007
ETimor results confirm runoff
Dili -

East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta and a former guerrilla fighter will contest a runoff vote in the nation's presidential election, final results from the poll confirmed Wednesday.
The ruling Fretilin party's Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres won 27.89 percent or 112,666 votes in the closely fought April 9 race, the country's first presidential poll since its independence in 2002.

Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta took 21.81 percent or 88,102 votes, according to results released by the National Election Commission (CNE).

The results are final pending a 24-hour window for candidates to appeal, CNE chairman Faustino Cardoso told reporters.

The two leading candidates did not garner 50 percent of the vote, leaving Guterres and Ramos-Horta to contest the runoff on May 8.

"Participation rate was 81.79 percent from 705 polling stations all over East Timor," said Cardoso, releasing the figures. "We give 24 hours to the public to claim their case to the appeal court. If there are no objections after that period, CNE will verify the results to the appeal court," he said.

Opposition Democrat Party chairman Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo was third with 19.18 percent and a total of 77,459 votes.

Voter turnout was high and Timorese are hoping the election stalemate will not plunge the impoverished nation into more turmoil and bloodshed.

Confusion and irregularities with the poll count had threatened to undermine the election's credibility, and had prompted some of the eight candidates to demand a recount.

Reuters - 18 Apr 2007 10:33:28 GMT
Parliament chief, PM to contest E.Timor poll runoff

Dili - East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta and the country's parliament chief, Francisco Guterres, will contest a presidential runoff next month, the head of the election commission said on Wednesday.

Neither Guterres, who is also president of the ruling Fretilin party, nor Ramos-Horta won an absolute majority in the April 9 elections.

Guterres won 27.89 percent of the vote and Ramos-Horta placed second with 21.81 percent, said Faustino Cardoso Gomes, the chairman of the National Election Commission, citing official provisional results.

AAP - April 18, 2007 08:33pm
Two set to square off for presidency

From correspondents in Dili
East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta and a former guerrilla fighter will contest a runoff vote in the nation's presidential election, final results from the poll confirmed today.
The ruling Fretilin party's Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres won 27.89 per cent or 112,666 votes in the closely fought April 9 race, the country's first presidential poll since its independence in 2002.

Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta took 21.81 per cent or 88,102 votes, according to results released by the National Election Commission (CNE).

The results are final pending a 24-hour window for candidates to appeal, CNE chairman Faustino Cardoso told reporters.

The two leading candidates did not garner 50 per cent of the vote, leaving Mr Guterres and Mr Ramos-Horta to contest the runoff on May 8.

"Participation rate was 81.79 per cent from 705 polling stations all over East Timor," said Cardoso, releasing the figures.

"We give 24 hours to the public to claim their case to the appeal court. If there are no objections after that period, CNE will verify the results to the appeal court," he said.

Opposition Democrat Party chairman Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo was third with 19.18 per cent and a total of 77,459 votes.

Voter turnout was high and Timorese are hoping the election stalemate will not plunge the impoverished nation into more turmoil and bloodshed.

Confusion and irregularities with the poll count had threatened to undermine the election's credibility, and had prompted some of the eight candidates to demand a recount.