10/09/99
AP

JAKARTA - Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao - the rebel leader widely expected to become the first president of an independent East Timor - predicts he’ll inherit a country emptied by genocide.

Released yesterday after seven years in Indonesian custody, Gusmao blamed this week’s chaos in East Timor on his longtime enemy: the Indonesian armed forces.

The army has worked with militias opposed to independence in driving more than 100,000 people - 1/8 of the population - from the territory in the past few days, he said.

"There is no population any more," Gusmao said, referring to the tens of thousands streaming from the South-East Asian province that has voted to separate from Indonesia. Since then, Indonesian troops and sympathetic militia have unleashed a regime of terror, slaughtering citizens and forcing evacuation.

"The army is killing the population. The army is destroying and plundering the country," he said, his voice cracking.

Gusmao was freed after several days of negotiations with the government, which had wanted him to fly to Dili immediately. His supporters protested, fearing he would be killed on arrival.

He agreed to stay for now in Jakarta - 1900 kilometres from East Timor - which meant he would not be able to put his formidable popularity toward trying to bring an end to the violence.

"I think many Timorese will die in coming weeks," Gusmao said. "I think many children will die because their mothers will not have the food to feed them."

Gusmao said his rebels would stay in the zones they agreed to go into before the Aug 30 vote. In any case, they would be badly outgunned by the 20,000 Indonesian troops and police now in the territory, with more on the way after the government declared martial law yesterday.

Only the international community can save his people, Gusmao said. But Indonesia has steadfastly ruled out a foreign peacekeeping force.

Upon being freed yesterday, Gusmao was driven in a government car from the sun-baked, tiny house where he had been confined in recent months to the Justice Ministry.

Before a mob of reporters, an order from President B J Habibie’s was read, granting Gusmao amnesty and freedom from the 20-year sentence given him after his capture in 1992.

Gusmao, wearing a dark suit and tie instead of guerrilla fatigues or prison stripes, was driven to the British Embassy, where he planned to stay until he decides on his next move.

He said he’d go to East Timor "when the circumstances allow it" and hoped it would be as soon as possible.

"I’ve only just started to breathe freely," Gusmao said. "I don’t know what my plans are. I don’t know where my friends are and where to go."