JAKARTA, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- East Timor's independence leader, Xanana Gusmao, urged Wednesday the people of East Timor to forget the territory's bitter history and start preparing it for full independence.
"History is history and will remain history. It is time now for us to build a reconciliation, unite our vision to develop a future East Timor state," Gusmao told about 1,000 refugee representatives at a local sports hall in West Timor's capital of Kupang, 1,500 miles east of Jakarta.
He again called on all East Timorese living in West Timor refugee camps to return home.
"I came here to invite all of you to go home. Not because we won the war, but because we are all East Timorese," Gusmao said, cheered on by the refugees.
"We are one brother. Maybe we have different views and opinions, but that should not bring us to take up arms. Bitter history in the past must not be repeated in East Timor."
Gusmao arrived in Kupang on Monday for a three-day visit aimed at promoting reconciliation with former militia enemies and encouraging tens of thousands of refugees to return home.
Around 150,000 East Timorese are still living at various refugee centers across West Timor. They are among a quarter of a million East Timorese who fled or were forced by pro-Jakarta militias across the border into West Timor in the wake of East Timor's vote for independence in 1999, after 24 years of enforced Indonesian rule.
Gusmao said that differing choices in the 1999 ballot is part of the political process and should not cause the people to fall apart.
"It's the violence (in the wake of the ballot) that sparked hard feelings between us," he said, referring to the mass killings launched by pro-Jakarta militias following the ballot results.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said last month it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from West Timor in the past two years.
Most of the remaining East Timorese refugees are from pro-Indonesia militia groups, or are hard-line political opponents of Gusmao, who is expected to become East Timor's first president when the territory becomes fully independent in May.
