Dili – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid made a historic visit to East Timor Tuesday, braving the wrath of the population over 24 years of repression, to pledge the opening of a new chapter in the two countries' bloodstained history.
The day-long visit got off to a violent start when Portuguese police fired warning shots at an angry mob of youths which surged toward the armor-plated Mercedes carrying Wahid into the city.
But Wahid stuck undaunted to his schedule, adressing a crowd in front of the governor's palace as UN military and police wrestled with protestors in the front line of a 4,000-strong crowd.
Some cheered and some screamed abuse, as the president invited the leaders of the protestors inside the palace for a brief meeting to hear their demands. Protestors called for captured resistance fighters to be located and demanded a trial for Indonesian generals accused of atrocities here.
Wahid later signed a communique with the UN transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) on building new relations, reparations and borders before signing the foundation stone of Indonesia's first diplomatic mission here.
Wahid, who was a Muslim scholar in his early 30s when Indonesian troops invaded the former Portuguese colony at the cost of thousands dead, also laid a floral wreath at Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of the 1991 massacre of at least 100 civilians by Indonesian forces.
He also commemorated the estimated 20,000 Indonesians who died in East Timor, laying a wreath at a nearby military cemetery before heading for a brief press conference and then to the airport.
After the wreath-laying Wahid apologized to the Timorese people, who lost an estimated 200,000 people in the bloody aftermath of the invasion.
"I would like to apologize for the things that have happened in the past... for the victims, to the families of Santa Cruz, and those friends who are buried here in the military cemetary. "These are the victims of circumstance that we didn't want," he said.
Earlier, addressing the crowd outside the governor's palace, Wahid said both Indonesian and East Timorese had suffered from repression. "Thank God we both know how to put that in our past," he said, to cheers led by resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, before protestors drowned out his words. Gusmao walked among the screaming protestors, trying to calm them down along with fellow independence leader Jose Ramos Horta.
Earlier when the white Indonesian military VIP plane carrying Wahid and his 33-man entourage touched down at Dili's Comoro airport, he was greeted by Gusmao, the head of the East Timor National Resistance Council, who spent years in Indonesian jails.
Also present were UNTAET head Sergio Vieira de Mello and Nobel laureate bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. Security was massive for the three and a half-hour visit.
A white UN helicopter circled overhead, and Portuguese snipers were stationed on top of roofs in the city, where hundreds of houses have been razed – the legacy of the Indonesian army-backed militia rampage that followed East Timor's August 30 independence vote.