EAST TIMOR: East Timor prime minister Jose Ramos-Horta said yesterday that he was ready to resign if his people no longer wanted him, insisting that he had not wanted the job in the first place.
His remarks followed rumours that his opponents would stage a protest on September 20th to try to unseat him and demand that parliament be dissolved.
"If the demonstration is aimed at creating chaos, I will resign," Ramos-Horta told reporters after a ceremony to mark the transfer of all 500 international police in East Timor to the UN banner.
"As prime minister I have concerns about security, the economy and development. Let me tell you that I was not looking for this burden and I was not looking for the position of prime minister."
Concerns about East Timor's fragile security grew after rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado escaped from a Dili prison last month along with 50 other inmates.
Reinado, a key player behind the revolt which plunged East Timor into chaos in May, has called for a "people power" revolution in a letter circulating in the tiny country. International troops and police have been searching for Reinado since his escape but have failed to locate him.
However, Ramos-Horta, who became prime minister in July, was confident that security would continue to improve in the coming weeks. "I think security is improving and I believe that it will be even better in the coming weeks, or in the coming one, two or three months," he told reporters. "The situation is complex, but it doesn't mean there's civil war in East Timor."
Ramos-Horta said there had been security problems in some parts of the capital, Dili, but they were small compared with the violence in May, in which at least 20 people were killed.
Protests escalated into widespread violence in May after 600 members of the 1,400-strong East Timor army were sacked. An estimated 100,000 people were displaced, which led to the deployment of a 2,500-strong international peacekeeping force.The UN has agreed on a new mission to East Timor, comprising 1,600 police. - (Reuters)