Dili – Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel peace laureate who spent decades campaigning for East Timor's independence from Indonesia, was appointed the nation's prime minister Saturday.
Ramos-Horta, 56, is a political independent hailed as a potentially unifying leader, who has served as foreign minister of the half-island nation since it won independence from its neighbour in 2002.
He is believed to have edged out his former wife and Minister for State Ana Pessoa, with whom he has a grown son, as well as two other ministers in the ruling Fretilin party to claim the top job.
The elegant polyglot, who typically sports a five o'clock shadow and wears snazzy bow ties, saw his status rise at home in the aftermath of tragic violence which rocked the capital Dili and its surrounds in May.
Fierce fighting between rival factions of the security forces as well as street gangs wielding machetes and swords led to the deaths of at least 21 people and saw some 150,000 petrified East Timorese flee their homes.
Ramos-Horta takes over from Mari Alkatiri, who stepped down on June 26 amid demands he take responsibility for the crisis, sparked by his decision in March to sack 600 soldiers, or nearly half the armed forces. As Alkatiri's star has dimmed, Ramos-Horta's profile has risen.
The veteran statesman has acted as a roving peace-maker, meeting with disgruntled rebel groups and the military seeking reconciliation, and also taking on the critical role of defence minister. "He's the only known figure people have confidence in," Australian-based political analyst Bob Lowry told AFP.
The ex-journalist's diplomatic career began when at the age of 25 he was named foreign minister in the government of Fretilin, then the political wing of Falintil, which fought against the Portuguese colonisers and later Indonesia.
With Indonesia appearing poised to invade his country, Ramos-Horta left in a bid to convince the UN Security Council to back their cause. He failed but his promotion of the East Timorese cause had begun.
He spent 10 years in New York, where he discovered a passion for the cinema and traditional jazz but also became familiar with the workings of the United Nations, where he led the permanent delegation of Fretilin.
Ramos-Horta ceaselessly denounced the "genocide" he accused the Indonesians of perpetrating, and lobbied for the international community to intervene, with or without the mandate of the UN.
In a New York Times interview last month, he recounted how, struggling to get East Timor onto the world's agenda, he once plastered stickers reading "Free Xanana, Boycott Bali" on the back of toilet doors at a rights conference.
He wanted the well-known resort island's name to pique delegates' interest in then-unknown Xanana Gusmao, who led East Timor's guerrilla movement and is now East Timor's respected president. The Wall Street Journal responded with a front-page story.
Ramos-Horta's efforts were recognised with the Nobel peace prize in 1996, which he shared with Bishop Carlos Belo, the leader of East Timor's majority Catholic population, in a major boost for East Timor's global profile.
In 1999, the East Timorese finally voted to become independent, sparking bloody reprisals by Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed an estimated 1,400 people before an international force restored order.
Ramos-Horta then returned home after 24 years in exile. During his time away, at least 102,800 Timorese, or 10 percent of the population, were estimated to have died as a result of Indonesian policies. Among them were three of Ramos-Horta's brothers and one sister.
With a Portuguese father and Timorese mother, he speaks Portuguese, English, French and Tetum, the language of East Timor.
Ramos-Horta's name had been floated as a potential candidate for succeeding UN secretary-general Kofi Annan but he told AFP in an interview this month that he was not pursuing the job. "What notice would be taken of the secretary-general if I abandoned my own country in its time of need?" he asked.