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This article is published in association with United Nations.

The UN Secretary-General continued his historic visit to Timor-Leste on Thursday, emphasising the positive role the country can play on the regional stage to help resolve the crisis in war-wracked Myanmar.

António Guterres is there to take part in celebrations to mark 25 years on Friday since the country’s vote for independence, which was organised by the UN mission in what was then East Timor.

Independence duly came in 2002 following months of violence and destruction that ended years of rule by first Portugal and then Indonesia, which annexed the country in 1975.

Tribute to Timorese leader

On the second day of his official visit to Timor-Leste, the UN Secretary General held a meeting with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, paying an “emotional tribute” to the former resistance leader for the “sacrifices he made to achieve the independence of his country and his people”.

Mr. Gusmão – who served as the first president of the newly-independent nation, was imprisoned for six years in Indonesia and only released when the occupation ended in 1999.

Voice for the future

Speaking to journalists at the Government Palace in Dili, the UN chief highlighted Timor-Leste’s record in strengthening democracy and human rights, as well as its “growing international influence”.

Mr. Guterres recalled that the Asian nation is the founder of the G7+, a group of States emerging from conflict, and will soon join the ASEAN regional bloc. The Secretary-General said he was counting on Timor-Leste to take a leading role in supporting a future peace process in Myanmar, which has spiralled into chaos since the military coup of 2021 ousted the democratically-elected government.

He told the veteran Timorese leader that he was counting on the country’s voice at the Summit of the Future in September, to build “a world in which the United Nations Charter is respected”.

UN Photo/Kiara Worth

A billboard welcomes UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Timor-Leste.

Leading Portugal

The Secretary-General also visited the Timorese Resistance Archive and Museum in the capital Dili, where he was shown around the permanent exhibition “resisting is winning”.

As a former Prime Minster of Portugal from 1995 until the year of Timor-Leste’s independence, Mr. Guterres saw himself featured in some of the archive on display.

He was able to confirm the historical accuracy of one exhibit which stated that Portugal threatened to withdraw its forces from Bosnia and Kosovo – and leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.

The appeal was made at a time when several leaders were calling for immediate intervention by peacekeeping forces to protect the people of Timor-Leste from the violence that erupted after the referendum.

The UN chief also visited a replica of a hideout used by Timorese resistance fighters.

Meeting women of the resistance

Afterwards, Mr. Guterres visited the “Women of Timor-Leste” exhibition, organized by gender equality agency, UN Women, which portrays the life stories of resistance veterans and rights defenders.

He was received and accompanied by Hilda da Conceição, who during the years of resistance had the code name Lalo Imin, a combination of her grandmother’s name and an acronym that means “independence or death, integration never”.

Another veteran represented in the exhibition was Maria Domingas “Mikato”, who organized the first Timor-Leste Women’s Congress, held before the 1999 referendum. She is credited with being the driving force behind the decision in that vote to allocate some 30 per cent of political representation to women.

According to UN Women, Timor-Leste’s electoral law established that 33 per cent of political party lists must be made up of women. Currently, 38 per cent of seats in the National Parliament are occupied by women – the highest rate in the Asia-Pacific region.

Reflections on Gaza and Ukraine

The UN chief rounded of his day firmly in the present, with an appearance on “The President Horta Show”, broadcast on national television. The recording was also attended by Prime Minister Gusmão.

Mr. Guterres highlighted the role he played leading Portugal in support of independence in East Timor.

According to him, the factors that made the referendum and peaceful transition to independence possible were the “collective affirmation of the people with total determination, which could not fail to triumph”, together with the fact that there were no fundamental geopolitical divisions between power blocs at that time, as exist today.

Furthermore, the UN leader expressed his continuing concern over Russia’s on-going full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which represents a violation of the UN Charter and international law by a permanent member of the Security Council.

The Secretary-General also addressed the war in Gaza, as an example of the Security Council’s limitations amid internal division.

To applause from the audience, the UN chief said that as with Timor-Leste, the Palestinian people also have the right to self-determination and their own secure nation, in line with the UN-backed two-State solution.

Power of reconciliation

The Prime Minister highlighted that during his imprisonment in Indonesia he had seen the suffering first hand and come to the conclusion that the problem was not with Indonesians themselves, but with the political regime in charge.

President José Ramos Horta – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 – emphasized how he had used the lessons learned from Timor-Leste’s process of reconciliation in offering perspective on other post-conflict situations, such as Colombia’s on-going peace and reconciliation process.

He recalled that during the many years of armed struggle in Timor-Leste, there were never kidnappings or attacks against Indonesian civilians. 

Prime Minister Gusmão stated that often in the context of the conflict, the guerrillas commanded by him provided medical care to injured Indonesian soldiers, something he himself claimed to have done twice.