INDONESIA: Timor Leste President Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta should thank journalists who reported in his country during its independence struggle, rights activists in East Nusa Tenggara province, say.

In a press release received yesterday by ucanews.com, the activists said offering thanks “would be a token of appreciation for journalists, who strove to inform the international community on the suffering East Timorese were going through living under the control of the Indonesian military.” They said a thank you would be a good gesture ahead of East Timor’s Independence Restoration Day.

Timor Leste regained its independence on May 20, 2002 after a United Nations-sponsored referendum in 1999. It originally gained independence from Portugal in November 1975.

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