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East Timor: East Timorese
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East Timor is the territory comprising the eastern half of the island of Timor, the other half of which is Indonesian Timor, or West Timor. West Timor was ruled by the Dutch until 1949 when Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch and so became part of the Republic of Indonesia. East Timor was ruled off and on by the Portuguese over four centuries before September 1975. During those centuries the East Timorese suffered terribly from conflicts between those outsiders who would control the local population's destiny. In most instances the East Timorese were drawn into the combat.
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Running parallel to efforts towards maintaining peace and security in East Timor were measures aimed at developing a functioning judicial and legal system. An East Timorese Prosecutor General's Office and a Defender Service; 3 District Courts; a Court of Appeals, and prisons in Dili and two other locations were established in the course of 2000.
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The violence in East Timor during 1999 was, then, actually part of a larger and ongoing drama. Faced with the threat of democratic reform, ancien-régime hardliners in Indonesia have unleashed wave after wave of violence. Their current aim is to show that civilians in general, and President Wahid in particular, are incapable of governing Indonesia. The violence is all the more unfortunate in that it is occurring in a country where the majority of Muslims have just proved their democratic mettle. Democratic Muslims were united in rejecting Suharto’s anti-Chinese and anti-Christian provocations, and rejected the claim that the East Timorese struggle for independence was invented by Westerners so as to humiliate Muslim Indonesia. Now... out of range of Western cameras, a campaign of equally horrific violence is being carried out.
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Upon independence, East Timor became one of only two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia (along with the Philippines). The population predominantly identifies as Roman Catholic (97%), though local animist traditions have a persistent and strong influence on the culture. Religious minorities include Muslims (1%) (including former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri) and Protestants (1%) (including Taur Matan Ruak, Commander of the Falintil-FDTL). Smaller Hindu (0.5%), Buddhist (0.1%) and traditional animist minorities make up the remainder[35][36][37]. Church membership grew considerably under Indonesian rule, as Indonesia's state ideology Pancasila does not recognize traditional beliefs and requires all citizens to believe in God. Although the struggle was not about religion, as a deep-rooted local institution the Church not only symbolized East Timor's distinction from predominantly Muslim Indonesia, but ... played a significant role in the resistance movement, as personified by Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.[38] The constitution acknowledges the Church's role among the East Timorese people although it also stipulates a secular state that guarantees freedom of religion to everyone.
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East Timor was ruled by Portugal for about 3 centuries. During World War II, thousands of East Timorese lost their lives helping Australia forces fight against the Japanese. East Timor was then invaded by Indonesia shortly after Portugal abruptly left, in 1975. This was the day after U.S. President Ford's visit to Indonesia, with what people have suspected as being a "green light" to invade. At that time, Indonesia had military, economic and political support from countries such as UK, USA and Australia, for various reasons including the oil and gas reserves, a strategic location, various trade and cheap labor related interests. 200,000 people are said to have been killed since 1975 -- one third of the entire East Timorese population.
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The 2002 constitution of East Timor was drafted in preparation for independence after years of rule by Portugal and Indonesia and a relatively short period under United Nations administration. The East Timorese voted in favor of independence from Indonesia in a UN-organized referendum held in 1999. After a wave of civil violence, international forces intervened and a UN transitional administration (UNTAET) was established. Procedures for drafting a constitution for East Timor were established by a decree of the UN Transitional Administrator after consultations with the CNRT, an umbrella group of Timorese organizations that had opposed Indonesian control of the territory.
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