Skip to main content

Jose Ramos Horta Biography

José Ramos Horta

(Dili, 1940) Timorese politician and patriot.His efforts to reach a peaceful solution for the secessionism of East Timor, a province under Indonesian occupation, earned him the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the Reverend Carlos Felipe Belo, Bishop of Dili.

Ramos Horta grew up in a humble family.His mother was from Mauberense (native of Timor), while his father was Portuguese, exiled to the Portuguese colony in the Indian Ocean due to the Salazar dictatorship in the Iberian country.He was educated at the Soibada Catholic School, where he received an intellectual and spiritual formation that made him orient himself towards the priesthood.Later, he went on to study secondary school at the Liceu Dr.Machado de Dili, where he made his first contacts with the Maubean resistance movement.

Between 1968 and 1969 he already participated actively in the incipient nationalism of Timor, carrying out several protests against the Portuguese domination that earned him his first exile, between 1970 and 1971, in Mozambique.There he met the one who became his wife, Anna Pessoa, a Mauberense who worked as a lawyer in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, and with whom he had a son, born in 1977.

Back in Timor Oriental, began working as a journalist for a local media outlet, under the acquiescence of Xanana Gusmao, the main leader of FRETILIN (acronym for the Frente Revolucionária de Timor Leste Independente ).The nationalist movement was gaining presence in the eastern part of Timor until de facto control of most of the territory, which led to the proclamation of independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, on November 28, 1975.Ramos Horta was appointed minister Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the short-lived Mauba government.

In December 1975, days before the Indonesian invasion of Timor took place, Ramos Horta left the island for New York, where he was commissioned by the government of Timor to demand from the UN Security Council a quick intervention in the face of the annexationist appeals of Indonesia.The result of his appeal was null, since, despite various warnings from the international community, the Indonesian army invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975, exceeding in particular the FRETILIN headquarters, established in the native town.from Ramos Horta, Soibada; During the first attacks, four of his eleven siblings died.

From 1976 to 1992, Ramos Horta lived in the United States, where, after separating from his wife, he was ordained a priest on July 26, 1980.Between 1987 and 1988 he had to work as an employee of the Mozambican embassy in the United States, since his economic situation was really difficult.Thanks to this, he was able to take classes in International Law at the Academy in The Hague (Holland) and Human Rights Law at the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg (France).Previously, in 1983, he had studied for a doctorate at the Faculty of International Political Sciences of Columbia University (New York), and obtained the degree of Doctor of Peace Studies from the University of Antioquia (Ohio), in 1984.

During his stay in North America he did not stop denouncing before various organizations the atrocities of the Indonesian domination of East Timor, estimated at more than two hundred thousand deaths only in the first five years of the war.Starting in 1976, Ramos Horta was the representative of the newborn CNMR (Concilio Nacional de Resistencia Maubere) in all international forums.His experience as a diplomat was captured in the book Funu: the unfinished saga of East Timor (1987).

In 1992, with the imprisonment of Xanana Gusmao, Ramos Horta was left as the only voice denouncing the Indonesian violence in East Timor.Thus, in that year, he presented a peace plan for East Timor before the European Parliament, in which the three basic points of the same were explicitly indicated: after accepting the right of the Mauberenses to freely choose their government, the first step remained established in the resolution of the armed conflict between the Indonesian army and the CNRM resistance; in secondly, the amnesty for all political and military prisoners, the withdrawal of the invading troops from East Timor and their replacement by Blue Helmets from the UN; thirdly, the establishment of a referendum supervised by international observers in which Mauberenses could choose between three options: independence, integration in Indonesia or becoming a state associated with Portugal.

The support of the Community European to Ramos Horta's plan was decisive for the UN to pressure the President of Indonesia, Suharto, to cooperate with him.The first meeting between Indonesian and Maubean politicians took place in Austria, in October 1994, when the Indonesian delegation, led by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alí ​​Alatas, began a dialogue with Ramos Horta, leader of the CNRM.Despite this, a basic agreement was not reached until 1996, the same year that Ramos Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the humanitarian work that Bishop Carlos Belo carries out in the diocese of Dili.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jose Risueño Biography

José Risueño (Granada, 1665- id ., 1732) Spanish sculptor and painter.Follower of A.Cano, P.de Mena and D.de Mora, he worked in Granada, where he made the figures of the chapel of the Sacrament of the Carthusian monastery, the San Juan de Dios of the church of San Matías and the Crucified Christ of Sacromonte.It is famous for its polychrome baked clay figurines ( Penitent Magdalene ).

Giovanni leone Biography

Giovanni Leone (Naples, 1908-Rome, 2001) Italian politician, President of the Republic from December 1971 to December 1978.He obtained a law degree in 1930 and a year later he graduated in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Camerino, where he was a student of Enrico de Nicola, future President of the Republic.In 1933, after obtaining a doctorate in both specialties, he began his teaching career, which throughout his life would alternate with politics and the practice of law from his Neapolitan law firm. He held the chair of Law at the universities of Camerino, Messina, Bari, Naples and Rome.He enrolled in the Christian Democracy (DC) in 1944, and in 1945 he was elected political secretary of the Neapolitan section.Likewise, with the end of the war he was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel of the military justice system.In 1946 he was elected deputy in the Constituent Assembly and was part of the "Commission of 75" that drew up the Constitution. Ag...

Heinrich Heine Biography

Heinrich Heine (Düsseldorf, present-day Germany, 1797-Paris, 1856) Prussian poet.Of Jewish origin, he studied literature, law and philosophy in Bonn and Berlin; His teachers and friends included Hegel and August Schlegel.His first lyrical compositions date from 1822, clearly influenced by Lord Byron and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Heinrich Heine In 1823 he published Lyrical Intermezzo , a work linked to two tragedies ( Almanzor and Ratcliff ) of which his melodic vein should be noted, and in 1826 the first part of the Travel Paintings , whose four-volume edition he completed in 1831.These first Prose texts combine a fervent youthful lyricism with a scathing satire against diverse people and institutions.The ironic and agile prose of this work influenced later German authors and laid the foundations for a style that in the same text merged genres such as poetry, short stories, political essays, journalistic chronicles and autobiography. In 1827 Book of Songs was releas...

Why do Hindu women wear a red dot on their forehead?

It is one of the great mysteries (or perhaps not so mysterious) of humanity. Why do Hindu women wear a red dot on their forehead ? Everything has its explanation.And in this case, it would not be less. What seems logical is that in a culture like India, where colors are so relevant, one of its greatest symbols is this red dot or bindi .Bindi, in fact, in Indian means point.To complicate when the word for point is so cool.In fact, in the West, there are few people who already refers to this point as bindi, with total normality and as if it were our word. To begin with, it must be said that not in all cases it is red, because the bindi can be presented in several shades.However, before shelling the different shades, we should know that the bindi is associated with the third eye .Specifically, the point of energy they manage to unlock through meditation.Let's say it's the way they reach inner peace.It’s cool, right? Well, it's just one of the theories about bindi. Ma...

The US intervention in Vietnam

Between 1955 and 1964, the internal conflict in Vietnam opened its doors to an increasingly strong US intervention, who would end up waging his own war against the communist government of North Vietnam. In our previous article we have delved into the origins of the political conflict in Vietnam .The situation as it was raised in 1955 showed the territory of Vietnam divided into two states with policies opposite.One of them was communist ( North Vietnam ) and the other capitalist ( South Vietnam ).The latter would soon open its doors to American "help" in the fight against communism . The beginning of American intervention Just as it had happened just a short time ago during the Korean War , this was precisely the kind of scenario where the United States acudia to fight their battles against the " communist threat ", what we know as the " Cold War ". Recall that during the War Cold , the United States hardened their policy against...

Bruno Munari Biography

Bruno Munari (Milan, 1907- id ., 1998) Italian artist and designer.His investigations since the 1930s on the possibilities of movement and abstract forms have led him to an original expression within kinetic art.Since 1958 he has devoted himself, above all, to design (works for B.Danese).

The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall-Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall .The construction and especially the fall of the Berlin Wall have been great events that have marked the history of the 20th century since This wall divided Germany into two parts for more than 28 years. In this article we want to explain the background, the history of the construction, the fall and where you can see the remains of the Berlin Wall.all about the Berlin Wall, the Cold War symbol ! Index of the article Background of the Berlin Wall Let's start the article explaining how Germany was and what happened for the construction of the Berlin Wall.When World War II ended Germany was divided , we focused on Berlin where the city was segmented and n four sectors depending on the countries that occupied it.Or what is the same, Berlin was divided into these four sectors of occupation : The Soviet area The American zone The French zone The English zone When four countries with such different pol...

Carl Gustav Jung Biography

Carl Gustav Jung (Kesswill, 1875-Küssnacht, 1961) Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist.He studied medicine in Basel, and began his activity at the beginning of this century, in the psychiatric clinic of the University of Zurich, of which he was later medical director. Carl Gustav Jung After having followed in Paris, for a semester, the psychopathology courses given by Pierre Janet at la Salpêtrière (1902), He returned to Zurich, worked at the Burghölzli clinic under the guidance of Eugen Bleuler and carried out studies that soon made him famous ( Diagnostiche Assoziations-Studien , 1904-1906). In 1905 he was appointed a free professor of psychiatry.While he was still working in the last clinic mentioned, of which he had become chief physician, he met Sigmund Freud in 1907, with whom he began a fruitful collaboration.He was editor of the Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen , directed by Bleuler and Freud, and in 1911 he became president of the ne...

What is the true origin of Father's Day?

On March 19, Father's Day is celebrated, and although we know that in Spain this celebration occurs on this day because it coincides with the day of the death of San Jose, putative father of Jesus Christ, the truth is that the real origin is a completely different one, then What is the true origin of Father's Day? In Spain Father's Day is celebrated since the 50s , when, following a bell at the department store, Galerias Preciados, it was established that every March 19, it was decided to exalt with gifts to the parents (in 1948 there was already a previous celebration with Mass, gifts and performances in the school of the teacher Manuela Vicente Ferrero which was the first one that I celebrate this day), but it was not in our country where this celebration originated. It seems that the custom of celebrating Father's Day comes to us from the United States and was celebrated for the first time in the early twentieth century, when a young woman decided to ...

Bruno Ferenc Straub Biography

Bruno Ferenc Straub (Nagyvárad [act.Oradea, Romania], 1914) Hungarian biochemist and politician.Prestigious biochemist, university professor, was a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1969-1971), director of the Institute of Enzymology (since 1979) and vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1974-1976 and since 1985).Member of the National Assembly (1985) despite not belonging to the Communist Party, between 1988 and 1990 he was President of the Republic.