PORTUGUESE president Jorge Sampaio met Nelson Mandela in South Africa on Wednesday, and thanked him for his role as mediator in the East Timor controversy.
Sampaio flew in on Wednesday morning to meet Mandela. He told reporters that the Portuguese did not recognise the 1975 Indonesian annexation of the former Portuguese colony, and believed that the pople of East Timor had the right to decide their own future.
After meeting Samaio, Mandela called for the release of Xanana Gusamo, the jailed East Timor independence leader. “We cannot normalise the situation in East Timor unless all the political leaders, including Mr Gusmao, are free,” he said, adding that he had written to Indonesian President Suharto making this point.
Mandela recently met with Gusamo, and with Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Bishop Jose Ramos-Horta.
South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo said on Tuesday that the United Nations — which is behind the Mandela initiative — will send a special envoy to South Africa to discuss further possibilities with Mandela.