Welcome to the Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to the United Nations in Geneva

EARLY HISTORY

Timor was originally populated as part of the human migrations that have shaped Australasia more generally. It is believed that survivors from three waves of migration still live in the country. The first is described by anthropologists as people of the Australoid type, who arrived about 40,000 years ago and form the principal indigenous groups of New Guinea and Australia. Around 3000 BC, a second migration brought Melanesians, who later continued eastward and colonized nearly the whole Pacific Ocean, and possibly associated with the development of agriculture on Timor. Finally, proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina. The mountainous nature of the country meant that these groups could remain separate, and explains why there is so much linguistic diversity in East Timor today.

Timor was incorporated into Chinese and Indian trading networks of the 14th Century as an exporter of aromatic sandalwood, slaves, honey and wax. Early European explorers report that the island had a number of small chiefdoms or princedoms in the early 16th century. One of the most significant is the Wehale kingdom in central Timor, with its capital at Laran, West Timor, to which the Tetum, Bunaq and Kemak ethnic groups were aligned.

The Portuguese

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in the area, in the 16th century. They established outposts in Timor as well as in several of the surrounding islands. However, during the House of Habsburg's rule over Portugal, all the surrounding outposts were lost and eventually came under Dutch control by the mid 17th century. The area became a colony in 1702 with the arrival of the first governor from Lisbon. In the 18th century, the Netherlands gained a foothold on the Western half of the island, and was formally given West Timor in 1859 through the Treaty of Lisbon. The definitive border was established by the Hague Treaty of 1916, and it remains the international boundary between the successor states East Timor and Indonesia.

In late 1941 Portuguese Timor was briefly occupied by Dutch and Australian troops, who aimed to thwart the Japanese invasion of the island. The Portuguese Governor protested the invasion, and the Dutch forces returned to the Dutch side of the island. When the Japanese landed and drove the small Australian force out of Dili, the mountainous interior became the scene of a guerrilla campaign, known as the Battle of Timor, waged by Allied forces and Timorese volunteers against the Japanese. The struggle resulted in the deaths of between 40,000 and 70,000 Timorese. Following the end of the war, Portuguese control was reinstated.

The process of decolonisation in Portuguese Timor began in 1974, following the change of government in Portugal in the wake of the Carnation Revolution. Owing to political instability and more pressing concerns with decolonisation in Angola and Mozambique, Portugal effectively abandoned East Timor, which unilaterally declared itself independent on November 28, 1975. Nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces before the declaration could be internationally recognised.

The Indonesians

Indonesia alleged that the popular East Timorese FRETILIN party, which received some vocal support from the People's Republic of China, was communist. With the American cause in South Vietnam lost and fearing a Communist domino effect in Southeast Asia, the U.S., along with ally Australia, did not object to the pro-Western Indonesian government's actions, despite Portugal being a founding member of NATO.

The Indonesian invasion was launched over the western border on 16 October 1975. The day before the invasion of Dili and subsequent annexation, U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had met President Suharto in Jakarta where Ford made it clear that "we will not press you on the issue." Several U.S. administrations up to and including that of Bill Clinton did not ban arms sales to the Indonesian government, though the latter did eventually end U.S. support of Suharto's regime. The territory was declared the 27th province of Indonesia in July 1976 as Timor Timur. Its nominal status in the UN remained that of a "non-self-governing territory under Portuguese administration."

The East Timorese guerrilla force, Falintil, fought a campaign against the Indonesian forces from 1975 to 1999. Their casualties were relatively light compared to those they inflicted upon the Indonesian military.

Demonstration for independence from Indonesia

Indonesian rule in East Timor was often marked by extreme violence and brutality, such as the Dili massacre and the Liquiçá Church Massacre. In addition, subsistence agriculture, food, and medical supplies were deliberately obstructed, resulting in heavy excess mortality. From 1975 until 1993, attacks on civilian populations were only nominally reported in the Western press. Death tolls reported during the occupation varied from 60,000 to 200,000[3]. A detailed statistical report prepared for the Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation of Timor-Leste cited a lower range of 102,800 conflict-related deaths in the period 1974-1999, namely, approximately 18,600 killings and 84,200 'excess' deaths from hunger and illness.