Dili – East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao returned to a tumultuous and emotional welcome in his devastated homeland Friday, and told his people: "We are independent now and forever."

Dressed in Falintil battle fatigues, Gusmao, struggling to keep hold of his emotions, told a cheering, sobbing crowd from a podium in front of the old governor's residence that East Timor no longer needed Indonesia.

"We don't need Indonesia. East Timorese are very brave people," he said, to volleys of "Viva East Timor, Viva Falintil" from the young, the elderly, and the sick.

In the emotional speech Gusmao said East Timor would recover from the devastation and violence that followed its August 30 vote for independence.

"They tried to kill us, but we are still here, crying and suffering but still alive," said the man tipped to be the first president of an independent East Timor.

"They won't destroy us. There will be sorrow, but today we are more confident because tomorrow is ours. We East Timorese people have fought for 25 years. Today we finally find our liberation."

The 53-year-old Gusmao, who had been expected to return this weekend, was slipped into East Timor Thursday night by the UN-mandated forces (Interfet).

Crowds flocked from all corners of Dili to the whitewashed governor's residence, standing like a beacon in a sea of charred shells of buildings, to hear him.

"Our homeland is ours. We will develop our new country. We know what we want and we will recover from the damage," Gusmao told them. We meet again in very sorrowful circumstance but from today nothing can stop us. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, be happy."

"For our families who have died, we must respect them and remember them in our hearts. We have to continue our new life without suffering, without crying."

Interfet commander Major General Peter Cosgrove said Gusmao, who had been in Darwin, was flown to East Timor's second city of Baucau Thursday night and then taken by helicopter to Dili.

The first East Timorese knew of Gusmao's return was Friday morning when Interfet troops handed out leaflets telling them: "Mr Xanana Gusmao asks all the people of East Timor to come and listen to his speech in Dili."

Cosgrove said Interfet had assigned Brazilian soldiers to guard Gusmao. "It is a joyous day for the East Timorese," the commander said, adding that the two had already held brief talks focusing on his personal security and immediate plans.

"He is overjoyed to be back, and said he was seeking to achieve high cooperation between the CNRT, the Falintil and Interfet ... I was delighted by that," he said, praising Gusmao as "a statesman."

Gusmao has continued to head the National Council for Timorese resistance (CNRT) and its armed wing, the Falintil from his jail cell.

Asked if Gusmao, who is staying in an undisclosed safehouse, had returned for good, Cosgrove said: "Anything away from here would be a visit."

Gusmao spent almost seven years in Indonesian jails before his release last month. The resistance leader, who fought Indonesian troops for 25 years, was initially sentenced to life imprisonment. Earlier this year he was moved to house arrest as part of a UN-sponsored deal to settle the conflict in East Timor.

On his release after the independence referendum, Gusmao made the rounds of Western capitals appealing for international intervention in the territory.

Fellow independence campaigner, Jose Ramos Horta was in France Friday to meet French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Winner said he hoped for a normalisation of relations between East Timor and Indonesia following the Jakarta parliament's ratification of the territory's independence vote this week.

Angry pro-Indonesia militias went on a rampage after the vote, burning and killing, leading the UN to authorise an international peacekeeping force that landed on September 20 to restore order.

In Geneva a spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Commission said a five-member team tasked with investigating human rights abuses in East Timor hoped to begin its inquiries on the ground during the first two weeks of November.