Mari Alkatiri
| Mari Alkatiri | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Prime Minister of East Timor | |
|
In office 20 May 2002 – 26 June 2006 |
|
| President | Xanana Gusmão |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Succeeded by | José Ramos-Horta |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
26 November 1949 Dili, Portuguese Timor (now East Timor) |
| Political party | Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor |
| Alma mater | Eduardo Mondlane University |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Mari bin Amude Alkatiri (Arabic: مرعي بن عمودة الكثيري) Mar'ī bin Amūdah al-Kaṯīrī (born 26 November 1949) was the first Prime Minister of an internationally recognised East Timor. He served from May 2002 until he resigned on 26 June 2006 following weeks of political unrest in the country. He is the Secretary-General of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), as well as President of the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse.
He is Hadhrami Arab by ethnicity and comes from the Al-Kathiri tribe a branch of which was also the Royal family of Hadhramaut that is now part of Yemen. He is one of very few Muslim politicians in a country that is 97% Catholic.
Alkatiri's ancestors were Hadhrami merchants who lived in Portuguese Timor, he 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 28 November 1975, Alkatiri was sent overseas as part of a high-level diplomatic mission. After Indonesia invaded the nascent nation on 7 December 1975, Alkatiri and his colleagues were unable to return, and he established the headquarters of the FRETILIN External Delegation in Maputo, Mozambique.
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