East Timor
| File:Timorflaga.gif |
East Timor (Bahasa Indonesian|Indonesian]]: Timor Timur; Tetum: Timor Lorosae; Portuguese: Timor Leste) is a country in Asia, consisting of:
- the eastern half of the island of Timor,
- the islands of Atauro and Jaco,
- Ocussi-Ambeno, a political exclave of East Timor situated entirely in West Timor.
Its capital and main port is Dili.
History
From the 16th century onwards it was a Portuguese colony known as Portuguese Timor. The rest of the island of Timor, and the other islands that were later to become Indonesia, were colonised by the Dutch between the 17th and 19th centuries, and were known as the Dutch East Indies.
On November 28, 1975, Portuguese Timor declared its independence as the Democratic Republic of East Timor (RDTL in the Portuguese acronym). However, this independence was to prove short-lived, as nine days later Indonesian forces launched a massive air and sea invasion of East Timor. During the invasion mass killings and rapings took place which were to leave 60,000 Timorese dead by mid-February. A puppet "Provisional Government of East Timor" was installed in mid-December and in July the following year, following a vote by handpicked "representatives" and a "request" by the "Provisional Government", East Timor was officially annexed by Indonesia - a step which was never recognised by the United Nations.
The war for independence
Several Timorese groups fought a resistance war against Indonesian forces for the independence of East Timor, during which many atrocities and human rights violations by the Indonesian army were reported. A sad highpoint was the killing of many East Timorese youngsters (reportedly over 250) at a cemetary in Dili on November 12, 1991. In total, estimates of the number of deaths in this war range from 100,000 to 350,000 - out of a total East Timorese population of only 800,000. The "Dili Massacre" was to prove the turning point for sympathy to the East Timorese cause in the world arena as, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union that same year, the "Marxist bogey" that Indonesia had often used against the idea of an independent East Timor had vanished. In 1996, Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, two East Timorese activists for peace and independence, received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1999, the Indonesian government decided, under international pressure, to hold a referendum about the future of East Timor. The referendum, held on August 30, gave a clear majority (78.5%) in favor of independence, rejecting the alternative offer of being an autonomous province within Indonesia.
Directly after this, paramilitaries backed by Indonesia as well as actual Indonesian army forces carried out a campaign of violence and terrorism to reverse the referendum. Activists in Australia, the United States, and elsewhere pressured their governments to take action, with US President Bill Clinton eventually threatening Indonesia, in dire economic straits already, with the withdrawal of IMF loans. The Indonesian government consented to withdraw its troops and allow a multinational force into Timor to stablilize the area.
After the referendum, a multinational force under the auspices of the United Nations but led by Australia landed in East Timor, and administration of East Timor was taken over by the UN through the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor. Elections were held in late 2001 for a national assembly to draft a constitution, a task which was finished in February 2002. East Timor became formally independent on May 20, 2002. The president is Xanana Gusmão, who had been the leader of the East Timor rebel forces.
The role of western governments
Western governments were criticized during the war for their role in supporting the Indonesian government, for example with arms sales. The US had supported Suharto's regime in Indonesia during the cold war as it was seen as a bulwark against communism. In 1992 the United States ended its military training programme in Indonesia, and in 1994 the United States banned the export of small arms and riot control equipment to that country. Nevertheless, organisations monitoring trade in arms have estimated that between 1992 and 1997 the United States sold more than $1 billion worth of arms to Indonesia. In 1995 the training programme was resumed but included lessons about human rights and the control of civilian crowds. The Joint Combined Exchange Training program managed by Green Berets and Air Force commandos continued until 1996 without the knowledge of Congress. The fact that that some aircraft sold to the Indonesian army were not designed for offensive purposes did not prevent them from being so used. Arms sales to Indonesia remained suspended until a promise was received that lethal weapons and helicopters would not be used in East Timor.
Geography
Country code (Top level domain): TP (old), TL (new) (not on name servers yet)
External Sites:
- Future address of official East Timor Government website (not reachable at time of writing: please check)
- Excerpt from East Timor: Genocide in Paradise by Matthew Jardine
- Extensive links about East Timor
- East Timor News, News Searches, Research, and Reference