Originally published on the CGS blog on May 11, 2007.
If you walk into my office in Washington, you’ll find that I have a few photos of people I’ve met, along with photos of friends (and of course of my wife Molly and my daughter Greta). If you look at the bookshelf to the right of my desk, you’ll see an old photo of me with my friend Jose Ramos Horta. It was taken shortly after he had received word of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
But when I first met Jose in 1994, nobody wanted to talk to him, much less have their picture taken with him. At the time, he was the chief spokesperson and advocate for the cause of a free East Timor, a place few had heard about and even fewer wanted to think about. At the time, the United States was quite friendly with the government of Indonesia and did not want to do anything to cause ripples in that relationship. Most other governments — with the notable exception of Portugal — followed the American lead.
So when Jose used to sit in the coffee lounge located outside the (then-) chambers of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, there weren’t many people who were willing to come up and talk to him. I, being relatively new at the whole international human rights game, didn’t know better. So I went up and said hello. I soon came to discover that the many years of struggle for Timorese independence had not lessened Jose’s decency, his kindness, or his good humor. I was delighted to get to know him, and to do what little I could to help him in his cause.
A few years later, the United States changed its policies, the government of Indonesia changed its stripes, and East Timor (now Timor-Leste) got the independence it so deserved — but only after horrible human rights abuses and a UN intervention. For a while, it looked like Timor-Leste would prove to be a model of how the UN should organize its rebuilding efforts.
Then this spring, things went badly wrong — long-standing divisions in Timorese society led to a crisis that nearly undid all the good work of the past few years. Now the people of Timor Leste have gone to the polls and have picked a new President to help lead them out of these troubled times — and they have chosen my old friend , Jose Ramos Horta. He has a tough job ahead, trying to heal past wounds and building up his nation’s fragile economic and political infrastructure.
I wish you well Mr. President-Elect. You have many challenges ahead of you. But I can think of no one better to take them on.
