Top > World > 2006 > June > 2006-06-27

PM of East Timor Offers to Resign

East Timor?s prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, said this week he is ?ready to resign? following his failed attempts to re-establish order in the small nation, which gained its independence as the formally known ?Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste? in 2002, following the throwing off of the yoke of Indonesia in 1999 and three years of United Nations administration. The unrest in East Timor began when the government of Mr. Alkatiri fired 600 soldiers who had gone on strike, claiming they had been discriminated against.

President Xanana Gusmao, who had threatened to resign his post if Alkatiri did not, has asked for the return of international peacekeepers who, according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, left after pressure from the United States. Australia, New Zealand, former ruler Indonesia and Malaysia responded to Gusmao?s call, Gusmao was a key figure in ending the Indonesian administration of East Timor.

East Timor originally declared independence in 1975, but an invasion of Indonesian troops just a few days later ended that brief effort for the next 24 years. The dismissed soldiers left the East Timoran capital of Dili and set up armed camps in the countryside, setting the stage for the country?s current troubles. Mr. Alkatiri?s offer came, he said, after ?having deeply reflected on the present situation prevailing in the country?, and that his resignation would in effect be ?assuming my own share of responsibility for the crisis affecting our country.?