The East Timorese leader Mr Xanana Gusmao, who is expected to lead an independent East Timor, was greeted by hundreds of cheering, sobbing supporters yesterday when he returned to his homeland after seven years in an Indonesian jail.
"Today is the day of freedom of East Timor," Mr Gusmao said in a speech in which he often struggled to control his emotions. He spoke outside the beachfront governor's residence.
"All of our suffering, we can leave behind. Today we see our future. This land is ours. We will be independent forever," he said, speaking in the local Tetum language. Mr Gusmao returned quietly to East Timor overnight from Australia.
"We don't need Indonesia. East Timorese are very brave people," he said, to shouts of "Viva East Timor, Viva Falintil", the guerrilla army. Mr Gusmao said East Timor would recover from the devastation and violence that followed its August 30th vote for independence.
"They tried to kill us, but we are still here, crying and suffering but still alive. . .They won't destroy us. There will be sorrow, but today we are more confident because tomorrow is ours. We East Timorese people have fought for 25 years. Today we finally find our liberation."
Indonesia freed the former poet and teacher more than a month ago. Indonesian legislators earlier this week formally approved the independence vote.
Meanwhile, the international force in East Timor has moved into the isolated enclave of Oecussi.
Pro-independence guerrillas say up to 70 people have been killed in recent days in the enclave, which is cut off in West Timorese territory and was the last part of East Timor the UN-backed force entered.
"With this move, Interfet has now exerted its security presence over the whole of East Timor," Maj Gen Peter Cosgrove, commander of the Interfet multinational force, told a news conference.
He declined to say how many troops were there, but said the international force was taking reports of atrocities seriously. "Any of these reports of wanton mass destruction don't just concern me, they concern the whole world community," Maj Gen Cosgrove said. "That's why we are in there."
Humanitarian operations in the enclave will at first be handled by Interfet troops until it is judged safe for aid agencies to move in.
Maj Gen Cosgrove said there had been some destruction in the enclave, but it was too early to say how widespread this was.
East Timor's pro-independence Falintil guerrillas say pro-Jakarta militias have moved into the enclave several times this month, burning buildings and killing and terrorising inhabitants. It said thousands have fled into the hills in the enclave.
Falintil says it has intelligence that militiamen may launch a full-scale assault on Oecussi on Monday. The militias, in league with the Indonesian military, launched a campaign of murder and arson at the time of the August 30th ballot.
Thousands of militiamen are massed in West Timor and say they will fight to reclaim their homeland for Indonesia.
