The Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Ukraine today expressed shock at the assassination attempt in Dili this morning on President José Manuel Ramos Horta of East Timor.
President Ramos Horta is said to be in a critical condition, now evacuated to Darwin, Australia. The Resident Coordinator, Francis M. O'Donnell, said:
I have known Jose Ramos Horta for many years, ever since we jointly organized, with the assistance of the Portuguese Institute of Public Administration and UNDP, a strategic workshop for the Timorese leadership with the UN operation (UNTAET) in East Timor back on 1st March, 2000.
It lead to a restructuring of the UN presence in East Timor after the late Sérgio Vieira de Mello brought the blueprint before the Security Council on 27 June 2000, and effectively laid the institutional basis for independence. We wish President Ramos Horta a very speedy recovery and success in restoring stability to his country, one of the world's newest democracies.
President José Manuel Ramos Horta, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1996, later became the first Foreign Minister, then Prime Minister, and now President.
East Timor joined the United Nations on 27 September 2002.
11.02.08
