Tag Archives: Study in East Timor

East Timor, state in the east of the island Timor. The country is mountainous, in addition to light monsoon forests, savannahs predominate. The residents (predominantly mixed population from Melanesian and old Indonesian peoples) are mostly Catholic. The economic basis is agriculture (export of coffee). According to COUNTRYAAH, East Timor is a nation in Southeastern Asia, the capital city of which is Dili. The latest population of East Timor is 1,318,456. ACEINLAND: Lists and descriptions of main religions and beliefs in East Timor, including religion demographics and statistics on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.

History: East Timor, a Portuguese overseas province since 1951, was occupied by Indonesia in 1976. In 1999 it was placed under an interim administration of the UN in preparation for independence and became independent as a democracy in 2002.

HISTORY
From 1520–1975, East Timor was under the rule of Portugal, only briefly interrupted by occupations by Great Britain (1812–15) and Japan (1942–45), which also affected the western part of Timor, which was in Dutch possession from 1613. 1951–75 was Portuguese Timoran overseas province of Portugal. In view of the Portuguese intention to withdraw from the colonial area, various parties were formed, including the UDT (Portuguese abbreviation for »Democratic Union of Timors«), which initially sought a federation with Portugal, the FRETILIN (»Revolutionary Front of the Independent East Timor«) and the APODETI (» Democratic People’s Association of Timorers «), which advocated the annexation of East Timor to Indonesia as an autonomous province. The dispute between these groups led from August 1975 to a civil war lasting several weeks, in which FRETILIN prevailed (November 28, 1975 declaration of independence). On December 7, 1975, Indonesian troops began to occupy East Timor (around 200,000 dead as a result of the military action and its aftermath); in July / August 1976 it became the 27th Affiliated to the province of Indonesia (not recognized internationally). Against the annexation turned a v. a. The independence movement led by FRETILIN and persecuted by the Indonesian military with repression (including the massacre in Dili on November 12, 1991). The UN-mediated Indonesian-Portuguese negotiations on East Timor, which took place for the first time in the 1980s and again from December 1992 (first Indonesian contact with FRETILIN in 1994), led to an agreement in May 1999 to hold a referendum among the East Timorese population about the future of the territory.

In this referendum, which took place on August 30, 1999 under UN supervision, almost 80% of Timorers voted for the independence of East Timor. Immediately afterwards, pro-Indonesian militias, with the toleration and in some cases direct support of the stationed Indonesian military, unleashed a bloody wave of terror against the population (killing numerous people, fleeing or deporting around 200,000 Timorers to West Timor, pillaging and destroying cities); the attacks by the militias were also directed against foreign aid organizations and the headquarters of the UN mission (United Nations Mission in East Timor, abbreviation UNAMET) in Dili. Under strong international pressure, the Indonesian government imposed martial law on East Timor, leaving the East Timorese guerrilla leader in early September 1999 J. A. (“Xanana”) released Gusmão and agreed to the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in East Timor. First units under the supreme command of the Australian General Peter Cosgrove (* 1947)The emergency force provided (International Force East Timor, abbreviation INTERFET; about 7,500 soldiers) landed in Dili on September 20, 1999 and took control of East Timor; by the end of September 1999, a large part of the Indonesian army units withdrew (with the destruction of parts of the infrastructure). After Indonesia officially annulled the annexation of East Timor on October 19, 1999, it was placed under a UN transitional administration (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, abbreviation UNTAET) on October 26, 1999 in preparation for independence. In February 2000 INTERFET was replaced by a UN peacekeeping force; In 2001 the UN administrative mandate was extended. In the elections for the constituent assembly on August 30, 2001, FRETILIN received 57.3% of the vote. In September 2001 the first independent East Timorese government was constituted. Their boss became M. Alkatiri (FRETILIN); J. Ramos-Horta, who had already served as Foreign Minister in the previous transitional cabinet, remained in this position.