Dili – Nobel prize-winner Jose Ramos-Horta has been named as East Timor's new prime minister, President Xanana Gusmao announced Saturday, ending weeks of political uncertainty in the nation.
The premier's position was left empty last month when Mari Alkatiri resigned, bowing to pressure to take responsibility for violence which saw at least 21 people die and 150,000 flee their homes for makeshift refugee camps.
"We have agreed to declare as prime minister Jose Ramos-Horta, first deputy prime minister Estanislau da Silva and second deputy prime minister Rui Araujo," Gusmao said after meeting with leaders from the ruling party. Da Silva is currently agriculture minister while Araujo is health minister.
"I believe they are going to meet either today (Saturday), tomorrow or the day after and we will announce when the swearing-in of this new government will take place," Gusmao said. "The programs of this new government will focus on solving this crisis so that the people can return home and the situation can normalise."
Ramos-Horta's spokesman Chris Santos told AFP that the new premier would not make any statement until Monday.
Naming a premier acceptable both to the ruling Fretilin party and Gusmao, who has been highly critical of its leaders, is crucial for Asia's poorest nation to begin forging a peaceful future after the unrest in May.
Alkatiri's Fretilin party, which commands an easy majority of 55 seats out of 88 in parliament, handed Gusmao a shortlist of candidates for the position on Friday. Ramos-Horta, who was East Timor's international face during its years of fighting Indonesia's occupation and won the 1996 Nobel peace prize for his efforts, was foreign and defence minister in Alkatiri's government. He is not a member of the decades-old Fretilin party but helped found it.
The 56-year-old, who will run the country until elections due in early 2007, has been widely seen as a potentially unifying leader for the young nation, which finally became independent in 2002.
He told local radio before the announcement that in order for the new government to function properly, he believed East Timor's next prime minister needed to be "brave and possess an open conscience."
"The person must be able to hold dialogue with everyone, including the (Catholic) Church," he said. "There has to be dialogue with the private sector in order to boost the economy and provide jobs for unemployed youths."
A veteran diplomat, Ramos-Horta has acted as a roving peace-maker in recent weeks, actively meeting with disgruntled rebel groups and military factions to seek reconciliation between them.
The May unrest was triggered by Alkatiri sacking some 600 soldiers, or nearly half of the nation's armed forces, after they deserted complaining of discrimination because they came from the west.
More than 2,200 Australian-led foreign peacekeepers were deployed to East Timor to restore calm amid the unrest and they continue to patrol the capital, though occasional outbreaks of violence have occurred since their arrival.
Late Saturday the streets remained peaceful, with Australian troops roaming the city in armoured personnel vehicles.
Many ordinary East Timorese welcomed Ramos-Horta's appointment. "This is good because Mr. Horta is well known everywhere and he does not take the side of any group, he embraces everybody," 27-year-old school teacher Joao Cabral told AFP. Alalu da Silva, a 30-year-old chef, echoed a common view in saying he believed he would bring stability. "He deserves to be in the post because he can bring peace," he said.