East Timor or Timor-Leste is a tiny island country in Southeast Asia nestled between Australia and Indonesia.
For more than 300 years the territory of East Timor was ruled by Colonial Portugal (Portuguese Timor). They set up both commercial outposts and catholic missions. On 28 November 1975, Portugal withdrew from the island territory when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor had declared the territory’s independence. But this exit from East Timor was not at all smooth and this enraged bitter rivalry between various local groups. Just nine days later in December 1975 East Timor was invaded and occupied by the Indonesian military. Suharto, the Indonesian president at that time didn’t receive much resistance from the western countries due to the left-leaning stance of East Timor at that time (Cold war). The Indonesian occupation was a brutal and violent period in East Timor’s history with various suppression tactics many people lost their lives during that period.
The following decades were highly violent with many conflicts between the separatist groups known as Fretilin and the Indonesian military. The military fought a continuous guerilla war with the rebels in the island’s interior mountains. There were numerous rights violations and over 100,000 people died under the occupations of Indonesia.
One of the most defining instances happened on November 12, 1991, when the Indonesian military shot and killed over 250 people who had come for the memorial procession in honor of Sebastio Gomez, a pro-independence supporter killed by the Indonesian military. The events occurred in the Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili, East Timor’s capital. This tragedy is known as the Santa Cruz Massacre. The event gained international media attention. Although the Indonesian occupation did not cede until eight years later in 1999, the Santa Cruz massacre was a defining moment in the island nation’s quest for independence.
In 1998 president Suharto resigned from his position after more than 30 years in power due to growing pressure and protests against him from within the country. His replacement was open towards more open towards the autonomy of East Timor. International pressure for East Timor grew in 1998. During the downfall of the New Order government, as part of Reformasi, a referendum was held in East Timor to ask whether they wished to remain in Indonesia with increased autonomy or become independent. On August 30, 1999, about 78% of the population of East Timorese chose to remain independent.
Following the referendum, violence again erupted in East Timor as Indonesian-backed militias increased their activities across the country. In September UN peacekeeping let by Australia force took control of the situation but a lot of damage was already done. In 2002 Xanana Gusmão was elected as the first president after three years of transitional governance by the UN.
As of today, the country has been relatively stable but the economic conditions have not been improved. Indonesia’s Timor has fared comparatively better than East Timor. It was also discovered that Australia, a country that East Timor considered as their ally had spied on East Timor to gain leverage over negotiations on the exploitation of natural resources in the Timor Sea. On a positive note, the country has comparatively good relations with Indonesia now.
References:
Eduindex News 