Dili – Eighteen East Timorese freed by Jakarta under a presidential amnesty program arrived in their homeland Saturday to an emotional welcome.
A C-21A aircraft chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which left Halim Perdanakusumah air force base in East Jakarta with the 18 East Timorese on board nearly five hours earlier, landed at Comoro airport at 2:15pm.
Independence leader Xanana Gusmao was personally on hand at the airport to greet the arrival. He had left the first meeting of the National Consultative Council, a type of cabinet for East Timor, to greet the returnees.
Gusmao, the man most likely to lead a free state of East Timor, served some of the six years he spent in Indonesian jails at the same Cipinang prison in East Jakarta where the 18 prisoners had been held.
The 18 East Timorese were included in a list of 70 East Timorese who were granted an amnesty or had the remainder of their sentence waived by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Friday.
The other East Timorese were held in prisons in East Timor's districts of Dili and Bacau and officials said they might have been freed long ago as the territory was no longer part of Indonesia.
Gusmao went into the plane just after it landed and escorted the 18 across the tarmac into the terminal building, as scores of people lining up the short walk cheered.
As the group walked the tarmac, one of the prisoners waved his arm and could not restrain himself from shouting "Viva East Timor," "Viva Xanana Gusmao," "Viva Falintil," and "Viva the Roman Catholic Church." Falintil is the armed wing of the pro-independence umbrella organisation, the National Resistance Council of East Timor (CNRT) presided by Gusmao.
Many of the returnees wore small crucifixes hanging from necklaces. One carried a one foot long crucifix as he walked solemnly among the group towards the terminal. Inside the terminal, scores of people crowded near the entrance, many of them in tears.
"Viva Gregorio," said several of the people when they spotted Gregorio Saldahna, arrested by Indonesian authorities in 1992 shortly after the November 12 Dili massacre in Santa Cruz, among the newcomers. "We are extremely happy, the government of Indonesia must release all prisoners from East Timor," Saldanha said.
The 18 and some of their welcomers were immediately taken to the new CNRT headquarters in downtown Dili on board vehicles of the ICRC.
At the CNRT office, a former Chinese commercial association headquarters and under Indonesian rule a navy office, that was inaugurated by Gusmao on December 2, over 200 people massed at the frontgate to welcome the returnees.
With the CNRT flag flying above them, four returnees addressed the crowd in the local Tetum language from the building's second-floor balcony.
"I wanted to tell people that today is a great day for us," Saldanha told AFP afterwards. "It is important for us to come back to our mother country," he said, adding that with his other colleagues, he now wanted to contribute to the rebuilding of his homeland.