East Timor celebrates Independence Day on 20 May. This small island state gained sovereignty relatively recently - in 2002, after a long struggle for self-determination that goes back more than one decade.
The history of the struggle for independence in East Timor (Timor Leste) is a history of bloodshed, neglect on the part of international organizations, and a policy of “double standards”. In the 1990s, the events in East Timor were widely covered by both the international and Russian media. The main reason why we are interested in the fate of this distant island country is that it gained independence in spite of not only its powerful neighbor Indonesia, but also contrary to the interests of the United States of America.
East Timor is part of the island of Timor in the Malay Archipelago, plus two more islands - Atauru and Jaco, as well as the small province of Ocusi Ambeno in the western part of the island. Most of the population of this state (and in aggregate it is just over a million people: according to the 2010 census - 1,066,409) are representatives of the indigenous Austronesian tribes, who, due to mixing and assimilation, have lost their tribal identification. On the island they are called "mestisu", or simply Timorese. Less numerous, but they have a clear ethnic identity, the Austronesian and Papuan ethnic groups in the mountainous regions of the island.
Back in the XIV century, the first Portuguese travelers appeared on the island, seeking to establish the influence of the Portuguese crown in this part of the Indian Ocean. But it took about two hundred years to finally turn the eastern part of the island into a Portuguese colony. And, accordingly, 273 years - from 1702 to 1975. - East Timor belonged to one of the largest colonial empires - the Portuguese.
Among other Portuguese colonies, East Timor stood out for its particular backwardness. Specialization in the cultivation of coffee and rubber, however, did not allow the colony to cover even its own needs. But significant and regular financial investments were required to maintain the combat capability of the military garrison. Despite the fact that the island in 1859 was divided between the Netherlands - the "metropolis" of the rest of Indonesia, and Portugal, the danger of redistribution of the territory of the colony always remained. The human losses of the indigenous population of the island during the years of colonization cannot be counted.
Despite the continual outbreak of anti-colonial uprisings, East Timor remained under Portuguese rule after the end of World War II. But for four years, Australian military units were stationed on the island, on which the main burden of preventing the invasion of Japanese units into Australia fell. And the losses of the local population are impressive - from 40 to 70 thousand Timorese died during the war, fighting on the side of the Australians.
The post-war years were marked by a crisis of the already weakening Portuguese colonial empire. In almost all Portuguese colonies in the 1960s, an armed national liberation struggle unfolded. However, Portugal did not want to release the controlled territories in Africa and Asia. Including because it was in the Portuguese colonies that the national liberation movements turned out to be entirely left-oriented. The socialist line of the colonial parties frightened the Portuguese leadership, which did not want to transfer power into the hands of pro-Soviet forces. Remaining the last colonial empire, Portugal every year experienced more and more difficulties in controlling the situation in the African and Asian colonies.
In the east of the island of Timor, the anti-colonial struggle was led by FRETILIN - the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor. Ideologically and practically, this organization imitated left-leaning national liberation parties in the African colonies of Portugal - the Angolan Labor Party (MPLA), the Mozambican FRELIMO, PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, MLSTP in Sao Tome and Principe.
However, unlike in the African colonies of Portugal, FRETILIN was never destined to come to power in the 1970s. The overthrow of the authoritarian regime in Portugal in 1974 brought about the processes of sovereignty in its colonies. Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde (Cape Verde), Sao Tome and Principe declared their independence and were recognized by the world community. Timor Leste, which was also expected to proclaim sovereignty under the FRETILIN leadership, faced a different challenge. Indonesia, a powerful neighbor, whose level of development and population is incomparable with East Timor, opposed the possible prospect of coming to power in the new sovereign state of the left-wing pro-Soviet forces in the person of FRETILIN. In the elections in the spring of 1975, FRETILIN received the majority of votes, followed by armed clashes between supporters and opponents of the front.
The proclamation of the independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor on November 28, 1975, was virtually ignored by the world community, and was recognized only by Albania and several African countries (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe). As we can see, the Soviet Union and the countries of the Soviet bloc, including the ex-Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, closest to the USSR, refrained from recognizing East Timor. Because of the small island territory, no one was going to quarrel with Indonesia, and the prospects for the sovereign existence of a small republic seemed very vague.
Indeed, the day after the proclamation of independence, November 29, 1975, Indonesian troops invaded the territory of East Timor, and on December 7 they occupied its capital, Dili. The years of occupation came, stretching for two and a half decades. Indonesia proclaimed East Timor its province. However, from the first days of the occupation, it became clear that the new province is still that "bone in the throat" of the ruling circles of Jakarta. FRETILIN's supporters retreated into the jungle and turned to guerrilla warfare, in which they proved to be very successful.
It should be noted that, despite the ethnic and linguistic kinship, the people of East Timor do not feel like a single community with the Indonesians. The territory of East Timor for several centuries developed in the orbit of Portuguese influence, while Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands. The Dutch did not seek to include the Indonesians in their civilizational orbit, preferring to simply siphon resources from the colony. In Portugal, a somewhat different strategy of colonial policy prevailed, aimed at tighter integration of African and Asian subjects into the Portuguese world. In particular, the majority of the population of East Timor during the years of Portuguese colonization converted to Catholicism, while Indonesia remained Islamic. Currently, 98% of the inhabitants of East Timor profess Catholicism, that is, it is a Christian, Catholic country.
In the case of Timor Leste, both the United States and its closest partner in the South Pacific, Australia, have adopted their usual practice of double standards. The dictatorial regime of Suharto, who ruled in Indonesia, received all-round support in "resolving the issue of East Timor." At the same time, the fact that the inhabitants of East Timor belonged to the Christian world and the obvious danger of their oppression if they became part of Indonesia were not taken into account.
The horrors that befell East Timor during the years of Indonesian occupation are impressive even when compared with several centuries of colonization. Thus, only one figure of 200,000 deaths speaks of the true scale of the tragedy. With financial and technical support from the Anglo-American bloc, Indonesian troops carried out a systematic massacre of the island's population, destroying not only representatives of the resistance, but also ordinary civilians. As always, the United States and its European allies in this case turned a blind eye to the war crimes of the Suharto regime. The resistance to the Indonesian occupation was led by FRETILIN, whose armed forces continued to control entire territories far from the capital of Dili.
The history of the national liberation struggle in East Timor received an unexpected turn in 1998. The economic crisis contributed to the overthrow of General Suharto in Indonesia. His successor, Habibi, agreed with Portugal to hold a referendum on the status of East Timor. In an effort to influence the course of the referendum, the Indonesian military intensified violence against civilians. And, nevertheless, a referendum took place on August 30, 1999. 78.5% of East Timor residents are in favor of sovereignty. Three years later, during which the situation in the country was resolved with the mediation of Australian peacekeepers, she received the long-awaited independence. On May 20, 2002, a new state appeared on the world map - the Democratic Republic of East Timor.
The lessons of the struggle for the independence of East Timor are as follows. First, it is another confirmation of the well-known fact that it is impossible to suppress the nationwide resistance even by superior forces. In this case, the occupier is doomed either to cease his actions sooner or later, or to completely destroy the entire population. Secondly, the history of East Timor shows the hypocrisy of the entire world community, which for 25 years remained on the sidelines of the massacres on the island. Not to mention the fact that the United States and its allies have shown themselves here as accomplices of war criminals, sponsoring and supporting General Suharto's policies. Thirdly, the duration of the anti-colonial struggle on the island and its very occupation by Indonesia were largely a consequence of the fact that the Soviet Union first got stuck in Afghanistan and then completely ceased to exist. And the Soviet state itself was in no hurry to provide assistance to the partisans of East Timor, not wanting to quarrel with Indonesia and, possibly, guided by considerations of banal economic benefits. Be that as it may - East Timor, overcoming all obstacles, did what seemed impossible - became an independent state.
