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13 Nov 2016
José Ramos-Horta, former president of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, said that King Abdullah II and the late King Hussein Bin Talal managed, with their wisdom and political astuteness, to preserve the security and stability of Jordan in spite of the challenges around the country. In a lecture he delivered at the Jordan Media Institute (JMI), in the presence of Her Highness Princess Rym Ali, the former president expressed admiration of the diplomacy of the Jordanian leadership and its relations with other countries. Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, noted that the Jordanian peacekeeping forces helped maintain peace in a number of areas in Timor-Leste.<br />
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Ramos-Horta spoke about his country and its past and future. Timor-Leste won its independence only recently. It had endured Portuguese colonization and then Indonesian colonization. He said that after its independence in 2002, the country started developing its democratic institutions. He affirmed that the Timorese resistance won the independence of the country without killing a single Indonesian civilian. The Timorese people offered thousands of civilians for the sake of independence. The resistance had only battled the Indonesian army that was fighting it. The Indonesian and Timorese peoples have unprecedented friendly and positive relations despite the long conflict between them.<br />
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He added that the population of Timor-Leste is 1 million and that 98% of them are Catholic, while the population of Indonesia is 250 million. He affirmed that no two states in Asia have such good relations as Timor-Leste and Indonesia despite the long hostility in the past.<br />
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Ramos-Horta pointed out that while he was in power when the country won its independence, he released many Indonesian prisoners, which made some NGOs accuse him of selling out. However, he accepted the accusation and discussed it with them. He also opposed the creation of international tribunals for Indonesians to be tried as war criminals and persuaded the United Nations and the United States not to resort to international tribunals to try Indonesians.<br />
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He noted that most of the civilians who died from the two peoples did not die in combat, but died of starvation and diseases, which usually break out during and after wars. He asserted that the Timorese resistance fought for freedom and independence and that the Timorese people lost thousands of families. Meanwhile, there was no brainwashing of the Timorese people to hate anyone. The war of independence had nothing to do with religion. <br />
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At the end of the lecture, which was attended by academics and JMI students, Her Highness Princess Rym honored Ramos-Horta by handing him the plaque of JMI.<br />