Darwin – East Timor resistance leaders plan to use the Portuguese escudo as their currency for at least the territory's transitional period under UN administration.
Roque Rodrigues, independence leader Xanana Gusmao's chief of staff, said here Friday the former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia 25 years ago would also use a two-language system with Portuguese the official language and Tetum the "national language."
The National Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) announced Friday it had set up a seven-member transitional council, presided over by Gusmao, to work with the UN administration.
The council would include Nobel peace laureate and resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta and Falintil vice commander Taur Matan Ruak.
Rodrigues said the council would maintain daily contact with the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) expected to be headed by Brazilian diplomat Sergio Veiera de Mello, the UN's under secretary general for coordinating humanitarian affairs.
"But for the time being we will act only as an advisory body," he said. "It is our understanding that the reconstruction of East Timor and our state must have the full participation of the East Timorese and particularly the CNRT."
Mario Carrascalao, a former governor of the territory under Indonesian rule, would lead the East Timorese contingent accompanying a World Bank assessment mission expected to begin the process of evaluating the devastation in East Timor at the end of next week. Carrascalao served as governor under the Suharto regime from 1982 to 1992.
Rodrigues said Gusmao, who slipped into East Timor Thursday night for the first time in seven years, would co-ordinate and lead the reconstruction of East Timor from Dili. "Gusmao will now live in East Timor and the CNRT would establish its headquarters there even though many CNRT professionals would remain in Darwin for the time being," he said.
Rodrigues said Gusmao would deal with the Interfet request that Falintil guerrillas disarm. "He will deal with this issue directly," he said.