On 7 August, the District Council bestowed the title of Honorary Citizen of Brasilia on the Timorese Resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao. The Ambassador of East Timor in Angola, Dr. Roque Rodrigues, received the title on behalf of Xanana Gusmao.

Imprisoned in Indonesia since 1993, the release of Xanana is one of the main demands for the start of talks to find a peaceful solution to end Indonesia's military occupation of East Timor (just as Nelson Mandela's release was fundamental to the negotiations which eventually led to the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa).

Bestowing the title of Honorary Citizen on the Timorese leader was the initiative of several District Deputies, including Antonio Jose Cafu (PT), Miqueas Paz (PCB), Marco Lima (PSDB), and Maria Jose Maninha (PT), who is currently the Health Secretary. The importance of the District Council's decision, which the local media did not fully embrace at the time of the initiative, is now better understood by the Brazilian media in the light of this year's Nobel Peace Prize award to the cause led by Xanana Gusmao.

This gesture of solidarity with the East Timorese on the part of Brasilia's District Council was a pioneering effort which it is hoped will now be adopted in other legislative councils, as a way of expressing the Brazilian people's wish to see a free and independent East Timor.