The bishop of Dili, capital of East Timor, and joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with the Fretilin resistance movement's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta.

The 700 000 or so East Timorese who survived Indonesia's campaign of genocide are strongly Roman Catholic, because of 400 years of Portuguese rule, in contrast to the predominant Islam of the occupation forces. After the 1975 invasion he lived in Portugal and in Rome. He replaced the highly outspoken Bishop Costa Lopes about ten years later, with the approval of Indonesian president Suharto, who hoped the mild-mannered Belo would be more tractable. But, while trying to maintain peace and dialogue, he proved himself a staunch champion of East Timor's people and their continuing desire for freedom.

Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo was born in the town of Baucau in the then colony of Portuguese Timor in 1948.

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