SYDNEY - Jose Ramos Horta, the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timor foreign minister, has ruled himself out as a candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Australian media reported on Saturday. “I am not a candidate. I didn’t lobby,” Australian Associated Press quoted Ramos Horta as saying.Ramos Horta, who won the Nobel prize with East Timor Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo in 1996, has long experience with the United Nations, which mandated an Australian-led peace enforcement mission into the former Indonesian territory in 1999. Australia sent troops to restore order in September 1999 after Timorese voted for independence from Jakarta. The mission was replaced several months later by a U.N.-led administration.
AnnanÂ’s second five-year term ends on Dec. 31 and U.N tradition calls for a rotation of the post to a certain region. Many countries recognise it is AsiaÂ’s turn.
Ramos Horta did not completely rule out becoming a candidate to take over from Annan. “In politics one should not say never. That’s all I can say,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting between Indonesian and East Timor leaders in Bali.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, one of the few declared candidates to succeed Annan, said this week he would seek the post. Ban, 61, has been foreign minister since January 2004 and has also served as ambassador to the United Nations. Among other likely candidates are former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.