15/10/2003

East Timor President to deliver Amnesty International lecture

The President of East Timor is to deliver the 2003 Amnesty International Annual Lecture at Queen's University tomorrow evening.

Xanana Gusmao, the so-called 'Mandela of Timor', will speak at the Amnesty International event on the theme, 'peace, justice and reconciliation'.

Patrick Corrigan, Programme Director of Amnesty International in Northern Ireland, said: "Human rights campaigners are accustomed to dealing with bad news on a depressingly regular basis. But, sometimes it is great to hear good news from a former trouble-spot and we think that will be part of President Gusmao's message to us."

Mr Gusmao was East Timor's resistance leader during most of the years of the Indonesian occupation and spent most of the 1990's in prison in Jakarta after his capture in 1992. Amnesty International sent observers to his trial and helped to ensure his safety during his years of imprisonment. He became the first head of state of the world's newest nation in April 2002.

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