Most of the men in this group of East Timor freedom fighters are now dead, killed in the long struggle against the invading Indonesians, but the one second from the left , with the mop of hair , survived and is tipped to be elected the next president. He is Taur Matan Ruak who resigned last year as Timor-Leste's armed forces minister. The National Congress for Reconstruction of East Timor party (CNRT), headed by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, has swung its support behind the highly respected Ruak , simply called TMR. CNRT supported Jose Ramos-Horta in the 2007 presidential election. One of the intending 13 candidates in the election to be held March 17, was Francisco Xavier do Amaral, 74, East Timor's first president , sworn in in 1975 , nine days before the Indonesians invaded. He fled to the mountains to fight , was captured in 1978 and placed under house arrest on Bali. Amaral died after a long battle with cancer in Dili in recent days . The above photograph was supplied by Darwin agronomist Rob Wesley-Smith who recently had talks with Ruak on a visit to the country,which has a population of 1.2 million . Parliamentary elections will be held mid-June, the outcome closely watched across the border and elsewhere . The fighter in the beret next to Ruak was Falintil commander , David Alex , another hero,whose final resting place is not known after he was wounded and last seen in the hands of the Indonesians . Alex cooperated with media people trying to get word out about the barbaric things being done to the populace by the invaders. The book A DIRTY LITTLE WAR by John Martinkus, foreword by Xanana Gusmao,Random House, Australia ,2001 , contains information about Alex and includes the removal of a bullet from his emaciated body .
