4. Heroes of East Timor

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Xanana Gusmao speaking to crowds from the balcony
of Cipinang prison in Jakarta

Jose Xanana Gusmao is the popular leader of the East Timorese resistance movement. He is seen as a conciliator who can work with both the East Timorese and the Indonesian government. He has the same significance for the East Timorese people as South Africans have for Nelson Mandela. He has been fighting for independence since the 1970's. He was jailed in 1992 and released in September 1999 by Habibie.

On 11th October 1996, the Nobel Peace Prize is conferred on Xanana Gusmao's representative on the outside, Jose Ramos Horta, and to the East Timor bishop, Ximenes Belo. Many believed that Gusmao should have shared the prize with them.

According to the Nobel prize committee Belo and Horta shared the prize "for their work toward a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor." Belo has been the foremost representative of the people of East Timor. At the risk of his own life, he has tried to protect his people from infringements by those in power. He sheltered hundreds of people in his church after the Santa Cruz massacre.

The committee said Ramos-Horta "has been the leading international spokesman for East Timor's cause since 1975 when Indonesia took control of East Timor."