José Ramos-Horta (1949- )

Awarded the Prize “for his work towards a just peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.”

East Timor political activist. Ramos-Horta was born on December 26, 1949 at Dili, East Timor. After studying law in the United States, he returned to East Timor (then still a colony of Portugal) to participate in the independence movement. In 1970 he was forced to flee to Mozambique. In 1975 he was named foreign minister of independent East Timor, but in 1984 he was again forced into exile. Now he is Coordinator of East Timorese Resistance Diplomatic Front Coordinating Commission.
Major Works:
The Unfinished Saga of East Timor (1987)