Atambua – Former Chief of the Integration Fighters Legion (PPI) Joao da Silva Tavares has called on all East Timorese people to continue reconciliation process.

The only way to create stability in East Timor is to reconcile all East Timorese people, Tavares who is also a former chief of Bobonaro district between 1976 and 1989 told newsmen here Friday.

The expected reconciliation is the convergence of the inner hearts of the East Timorese people who had conflicts in the past and the readiness to forgive each other without one party trying to bring the other to court or taking revenge, he said.

According to Tavares, the correctional facility is not a right place to solve the problems being faced by the newly born country.

He opined that the right place lies in the inner hearts of the East Timorese people who are ready to forgive each other, forget the bitter experience in the past and step forward to peaceful future.

Tavares further said reconciliation would be strong and durable if the East Timorese would forgive each other but not seek mistakes and take revenge. "We should not seek legal process against those considered guilty," he added.

If the government and people of East Timor are still seeking legal process against those considered guilty, horizontal conflicts will sooner or later recur in the nascent state.

Contrariwise, if the East Timorese government and people give priority to forgiving each other, the Democratic Republic of East Timor will exist forever.

On the occasion, Tavares also said he decided to live far from the border shared by Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province and East Timor as a way to create peace for East Timorese younger generation. "Certain quarters in East Timor would consider it a constraint to create peace if I live in the border areas," he said.

Tavares who decided to live in Indonesia's province of Yogyakarta however promised to always support reconciliation process to create peace among East Timorese people.

East Timor officially seceded from Indonesia in October, 1999 as a consequence of the pro-independence camp's victory in the United Nations organized popular consultation held on August 30, 1999. The territory integrated into Indonesia in 1976 but the United Nations never recognized the integration process.