Birth of a new nation: Timor-Leste
Jorge de Abreu Noronha
May 20, 2002

At zero hours of today - local time (18h30 of the 19th in India and 14h00 also of the 19th in Portugal) a new nation was born: the Democratic Republic of East Timor (Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste).

The island of Timor measures about 470 x 100 km with an area of 32,300 sq km and a population of around 1,400,000. The Portuguese reached the island somewhere between 1512 and 1516. In 1651 the western half of the island (with the exception of Oecussi-Ambeno) was conquered by the Dutch and, when Indonesia attained independence in 1945, was integrated in this country.

East Timor + Oecussi-Ambeno, with an area of 18,900 sq km, remained under Portuguese domination until the Fretilin freedom movement made an unilateral declaration of independence on November 28, 1975. This independence was not recognised by any country and ten days later Indonesia marched in, forcefully occupied the territory and later annexed it as its 27th province.

However, this occupation and annexation were also not recognised (except by Australia) and the United Nations continued to classify it as a Portuguese territory under foreign occupation. The East Timorese continued to fight for their freedom and finally an internationally supervised referendum held late August 1999 dictated by an overwhelming majority (around 78%) its secession from Indonesia.

Horrible killings, destruction and pillages followed, at the hands of Timorese "militia" supported by Indonesian military people. Between 1942 and 1945 East Timor faced Japanese occupation, during which a few thousands of the local population died. In mid-1975, two thousand died as a result of pre-independence struggles among three freedom movements then existing, and in the long period of about 24 years of Indonesian domination (December 1975 - October 1999) the population is estimated to have been decimated of about 220,000 persons. (Present population of East Timor:approx. 800,000).

Indonesian domination was followed by an interim administration by the United Nations. Two years after the referendum, on August 30, 2001, a Constituent Assembly was elected and Fretilin, the majority party, formed an interim government headed by Mari Alkatiri, with 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Co-awardee Jose Ramos Horta as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In April this year Xanana (Jose Alexandre) Gusmao, contesting as a candidate of nine parties, was elected President of the future country with over 82% of votes. The Assembly, meanwhile, voted to continue to function after independence, now as a regular Parliament.

Yesterday, May 19th, there was about to be a major diplomatic incident when six Indonesian warships entered East Timorese territorial waters (and one of them even went as far as berthing at the port of the capital) without seeking prior clearance, allegedly to render protection to their President Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri when she later came to attend the independence ceremonies. They were ordered out and, fortunately, obeyed.

Besides elaborating and voting the constitution, the Constituent Assembly also approved the national flag and anthem and decided that Portuguese and the local Tetum would be the national languages of East Timor.

The venue selected for the independence ceremonies was a place 8 km distant from the capital city of Dili, by name of Taci Tolo (= Three Lagoons) which is now to be renamed to honour the country's martyrs, many of whose dead bodies were "buried" by the Indonesians in these lagoons.

By 20h30 of the 19th (local time) an open-air Holy Mass was attended by a crowd estimated at over 200,000. The main celebrant was the Vatican's permanent representative at the United Nations Archbishop Renato Martino, at the special invitation of Mgr. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Administrator Apostolic of the diocese of Dili and co-awardee (with Ramos Horta) of Nobel Peace Prize (1996). The celebrant was sided by Bishop Belo and by the Administrator of East Timor's only other diocese (Baucau) Bishop Basilio do Nascimento.

I could not count the number of cardinals, bishops and priests present. One could see in a prominent place a statue of Our Lady of Fatima offered to Timor by the Portuguese Marian Sanctuary and flown in from Portugal a few days before. The Mass, interspersed with traditional religious songs in Tetum and dances, was celebrated in Portuguese and lasted for about two hours, with the reading of a message from Pope John Paul II as the last item.

 An inter-religious celebration joining Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Muslims then took place. These religious celebrations were followed, for another three hours, by cultural programmes from East Timor's thirteen districts and the small island of Atauro (which is in front of Dili).

At zero hours the UN flag was lowered while Barbara Hendricks sang "Freedom". The Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Anan then made a speech in English (immediately translated in Tetum) and handed over the administration to the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Francisco Guterres who then read the proclamation of the act of independence (or rather, as the people like to call it, of the restoration of their ten-day-long independence cut short by the Indonesians in December 1975).

The national flag having then been unfurled, the Speaker invested Xanana Gusmao as President of the Republic. Xanana addressed to the new nation and to the invitees (over ninety Heads of State and of Government, among whom the Presidents of Indonesia and Portugal and the Prime Ministers of Portugal and Australia, and also Bill Clinton during whose tenure as President of the USA the UN intervened in East Timor in 1999) in English, Portuguese, Baasa (Indonesian language) and Tetum.

Later during the day, President Xanana Gusmao, who is a Catholic (as the majority of the population) formally invested the Government headed by Mari Alkatiri (Muslim), the Government approved the resolutions to seek admission in the United Nations Organisation and in CPLP (Commonwealth of Portuguese Speaking Countries), and the Prime Ministers of East Timor and Australia signed the agreement for the exploration of the petroleum-rich "Timor Gap".

The new country, one of the poorest in the world, is expected to start drawing revenue from this exploration w.e.f. 2005. In the meantime it will continue to get support from the international community. Portugal will also continue to assist its former colony at least for another year, not only financially but also by way of training the armed forces and security personnel and as far as education (especially as regards the language) is concerned.

East Timor is going to be the eighth (and last) member of CPLP (Commonwealth of Portuguese Speaking Countries), side by side with Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome & Principe.

Viva Timor-Leste!

How good it would have been if the Goans, Damanese, Diuese, Dadraites and Nagar Haveliites had (in spite of Salazar's stupid stubbornness in maintaining that those territories were an integral and non-negotiable part of the Portuguese nation) not accepted meekly the Indian invasion but staged a fight for self determination, as later the East Timorese did.

I am sure that in such a case the international community would not have accepted the Indian occupation of the former "Estado da India" as a "fait accompli" and we could  thus have another free and independent nation in the world concert and another member of the CPLP, with our "bautto" proudly unfurled.

Jorge de Abreu Noronha
Lisboa, Portugal

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