Members of the public are invited by the Chancellor of Charles Sturt University (CSU), Mr Lawrie Willett, AO, to attend the Charles Sturt Oration at CSU Bathurst on Saturday 14 February, to be delivered by Nobel Prize Winner, His Excellency Dr José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

 

Dr Ramos-Horta will be the special guest of the University at the inaugural event of CSU’s 20^th anniversary celebrations.

 

“Charles Sturt University was formally incorporated on 19 July 1989, and in 2009 celebrates 20 years of achievement and growth as the University of inland Australia. We are deeply honoured to have Dr Ramos-Horta deliver the oration on this significant occasion,” Mr Willett said.

 

“The University takes its name from the 19^th Century explorer Charles Sturt who was motivated by ‘… A wish to contribute to the public good… ’, so it is most fitting that Dr Ramos-Horta, who has long strived for ‘the public good’ of Timor-Leste, will speak on ‘Timor-Leste, Challenges of Nation Building and Peace Building’.

 

Dr Ramos-Horta was active in the East Timor liberation movement and was a founder and member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN). He was exiled for two years from 1970-71, and in November 1975, when aged 25, the pro-independence political parties made him Foreign Minister of the newly declared ‘Democratic Republic of East Timor’. In December 1996, Dr Ramos-Horta was recognised as ‘… the leading international spokesman for East Timor’s cause since 1975’ when he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Ximenes Belo. Dr Ramos-Horta is the recipient of a number of other honours and awards, and was inaugurated as President of Timor-Leste on 20 May 2007 after serving as Prime Minister from 26 June 2006 to 19 May 2007. During an assassination attempt outside his home in Dili on 11 February 2008, he was shot but survived and recovered.

 

Charles Sturt University is a statutory authority established by the NSW Government under the Charles Sturt University Act 1989. The University evolved from the amalgamation of Mitchell College of Advanced Education at Bathurst and Riverina College of Advanced Education at Wagga Wagga, and today has campuses at Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, and Albury-Wodonga, as well as in Ontario, Canada, and other locations in Australia.