DILI, Aug 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Timor Leste on Friday marks 20 years since a UN-backed vote ended a bloody, decades-long occupation by Indonesian forces and paved the way for it to become an independent nation.
On Aug 30, 1999, nearly 80 per cent of East Timorese voted to split from neighbouring Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, starting a brutal 24-year military occupation.
But joy over independence quickly turned to terror as Indonesian security forces and proxy militias went on a scorched-earth rampage, destroying infrastructure and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to other parts of Indonesia. Around 1,400 people were killed.
On Friday formal events and 20th anniversary celebrations are scheduled with foreign dignitaries including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is to mark a maritime border treaty that could unlock billions in offshore oil and gas revenue seen as key to the impoverished, half-island nation’s future.
The treaty was ratified by Australia’s parliament last month.
Timor Leste – a mainly Catholic country of 1.3 million people – was recognised internationally as an independent state in 2002.
The occupation of East Timor is estimated to have claimed as many as 250,000 lives through fighting, disease and starvation.
In 2008, a joint Indonesia-East Timor truth and reconciliation commission found gross rights violations during the occupation and 1999 referendum. But the leaders of both nations ruled out prosecuting military and militia leaders responsible for the bloodshed. — NNN-AGENCIES
