Mari Alkatiri

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Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri

Prime Minister of East Timor
In office 20 May 2002 – 26 June 2006
Preceded by	Nicolau dos Reis Lobato
Succeeded by	José Manuel Ramos Horta

Born	26 November 1949 Dili, East Timor
Political party	FRETILIN

Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri (born 26 November 1949) was the first Prime Minister of an internationally-recognized East Timor. He resigned on 26 June 2006 following weeks of political unrest in the country.^[1]

Alkatiri was born in Dili, East Timor and had 10 other siblings. He left East Timor in 1970 for post-secondary studies in Angola, returning to East Timor as one of the founders of FRETILIN, becoming its Minister for Political Affairs. Following FRETILIN's declaration of independence for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on November 28, 1975, Alkatiri was sent overseas as part of a high-level diplomatic mission. After Indonesian invaded the nascent nation on December 7, 1975, Alkatiri and his colleagues were unable to return, and he established the headquarters of the FRETILIN External Delegation in Maputo, Mozambique.

During the 24-year Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Alkatiri was a chartered surveyor (Angolan School of Geography), and lived in exile in Angola and Mozambique. He also studied law at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique. Alkatiri was Senior Legal consultant, in a private law office in Maputo from 1992 to 1998, and consultant on Public International Law and Constitutional Law to the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique from 1995 to 1998.

He is descended from Arabic (Yemenite) traders who settled in East Timor more than a century ago, and is Muslim. [1]

On May 20, 2002, the United Nations Transitional Administration transferred sovereignty to the first elected Parliament and Government of East Timor. As Secretary-General of the FRETILIN Party, which had received a large majority of the vote in Parliamentary elections the previous August, Alkatiri was chosen as the first Prime Minister of the newly independent nation.

In May 2006 his government faced near-civil war conditions when approximately half of the country's security forces rebelled amidst scenes of rioting and looting in the country's capital, Dili. On 21 June 2006, President Xanana Gusmão called for Alkatiri to resign or else he would, as allegations that Alkatiri had ordered a hit squad to threaten and kill his political opponents led to mass backlash.^[2] Senior members of the FRETILIN party met on June 25 to discuss Alkatiri's future as the Prime Minister, amidst a protest involving thousands of people calling for Alkatiri to resign instead of Gusmão.^[3] The party agreed to keep Alkatiri as Prime Minister; Foreign and Interim Defence Minister José Ramos Horta resigned immediately following this decision.^[4] On the same day, East Timor's chief of police Paulo Martins called for Alkatiri to be arrested for conspiracy to murder his political opponents.^[5]

Despite this vote of confidence, Alkatiri resigned on 26 June 2006 to end the uncertainty. In announcing this he said, "I declare I am ready to resign my position as prime minister of the government… so as to avoid the resignation of His Excellency the President of the Republic Xanana Gusmão."^[1]

[edit] Legacy

Alkatiri has been described as a skillful negotiator and an economic nationalist who secured as larger portion of East Timor's share of the Timor Sea oil resources against Australia.^[6]^[7] He is backed by Portugal but opposed by Australia's Howard Government.^[8]