Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo is a patron of the International Peace Foundation, who received the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize together with Jose Ramos-Horta for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor. He was born in 1948 in the then Portuguese colony of East Timor. In 1973 he left for Portugal to study in Lisbon where he became a member of the Salesian Order and later studied at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. He was ordained priest in 1980 and returned to East Timor which in the meantime had been occupied by Indonesia after a short period of independence. In 1983 the Vatican appointed him as Apostolic Administrator of the Dili Diocese, which made him virtually the leader of the Catholic Church in East Timor; in 1988 he was ordained Bishop. Since Indonesia took control of East Timor in 1975 it has been estimated that one-third of its population lost their lives due to starvation, epidemics, war and terror. During this time Bishop Belo became the only strong audible East Timorese voice within the country consistently pleading for peace and freedom. At the risk of his own life and despite several plots to assassinate him he has tried to protect his people from suppression and physical violence by the occupying power. His longstanding attempts for a peaceful solution have finally succeeded in May 2002 with the East Timorese independence.
Monday, January 24, 2005:
14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at the National Defense College of the Royal Thai Army (not a public event)
Tuesday, January 25, 2005:
11:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at the NIST International School
(not a public event)
20:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand
Information & tickets: Phone 02-652-0580-1, Fax 02-652-0582,
E-mail fccthai@loxinfo.co.th
Wednesday, January 26, 2005:
14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at the Asian Institute of Technology
Information & free tickets: Phone 02-524-5005, Fax 02-524-6005,
E-mail nadeera@ait.ac.th
Thursday, January 27, 2005:
14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at Payap University
Information & free tickets: Phone/Fax 053-217-271, E-mail isrc@payap.ac.th
Friday, January 28, 2005:
14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at Assumption University
Information & free tickets: Phone 02-719-1515 ext. 3729, Fax 02-719-0482,
E-mail oia@au.edu
Saturday, January 29, 2005:
14:00 Dialogue on 'Empowering the poor' hosted by the Peace and Culture Foundation (not a public event)
