Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta will deliver the annual Cultural Celebration Lecture titled "Human Rights: Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Asia Pacific Region" at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, as part of the Assembly Series. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place in Graham Chapel.
Ramos-Horta has spent the last 22 years denouncing the illegal invasion and annexation of his homeland, East Timor, by Indonesia and defending the rights of the East Timorese people to self-determination. He has presented the case of East Timor to the United Nations, where he also has spoken as a leading advocate of human rights.
Ramos-Horta was exiled to Mozambique in 1970-71 for his allegations against the Portuguese regime that ruled East Timor until 1975 and for his active involvement in the development of political awareness in East Timor. When the Portuguese left in 1975, Indonesia invaded, a territorial expansion which, as a result of Ramos-Horta's efforts to make the plight of his country known, was condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
Ramos-Horta became a permanent representative to the UN for FRETILIN, the nationalist movement that had wrested control of East Timor from Portugal. His experiences as a diplomat are recounted in the book "Funu: The Unfinished Saga of East Timor." Between 1969 and 1974, Ramos-Horta was a radio and television correspondent.
Ramos-Horta is now the special representative of the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM), an umbrella organization of pro-independence activists and movements inside and outside East Timor. He is also the personal representative of imprisoned resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. Unable to return to his homeland, Ramos-Horta is based in Lisbon, Portugal and Sydney, Australia.
Ramos-Horta was educated in a Catholic mission in the village of Soibada, later chosen by FRETILIN as its headquarters after the Indonesian invasion. Of his 11 brothers and sisters, four have been killed by the Indonesian military.
For more information about the lecture, call 935-5285.
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