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East Timorese president considers stepping down

East Timor’s president is considering stepping down after surviving an assassination attempt and cannot promise he will complete his five-year term, an Australian newspaper reported yesterday.

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta is recuperating in Darwin, Australia, after being shot twice by army mutineers outside his home in Dili on Feb. 11.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who last year became East Timor’s second president since independence, told the Australian newspaper he would return to his homeland, but craved a quieter life.

“I will address the parliament when I return, and I will not promise the country that I will serve the full term,” Ramos-Horta said in the interview, which the newspaper posted on its Web site yesterday.

The 58-year-old, possibly the fractious country’s most popular politician, said he had had enough of the presidency but that he had not yet decided his future.

“Before I take a step in resigning, I have to consider all of these implications; the people of East Timor, our neighbors,” he said.

Ramos-Horta said he did not yet know if he was coping with the emotional trauma of almost dying.

“I will know only when I get home to my own house, to the site where I was shot,” he said.

Ramos-Horta was discharged from a Darwin hospital last month after multiple surgeries and has said he hopes to return to Dili this month.
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