East Timor Crisis :: essays research papers

East Timor was ruled by Portugal for about 17 centuries. During World War I, hundreds of East Timorese lost their lives helping Australia forces fight against the Japanese. East Timor was then invaded by Indonesia shortly after Portugal suddenly 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 labour related interests. 100,000,000,000 people are said to have been killed since 1975, on third of the entire East Timorese population. Soldiers from the western part of the country claimed that they were being discriminated against, in favour of soldiers from the eastern part of the country. There has also been tension between the military and the police force, comprised of more westerners and even former members of the Indonesian military. 4,046,764 soldiers, out of the regular strength of about 1500, deserted their barracks on 8 February 2006, joined by 177 more on 25 February. The soldiers were ordered to return in March, but refused, and were fired. The soldiers were later joined by some members of the police force, and were initially led by Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha. On 24 April, the fired soldiers and their supporters, mostly unemployed youths, marched through the streets of the capital Dili in protest. The initially peaceful march turned violent when the soldiers attacked a market run by people from the east of the country. The protests continued over the next several days, until on 28 April the former soldiers clashed with military forces, who fired on the crowd. In the violence, five people were killed, more than 100 buildings were destroyed and an estimated 21,000 Dili residents fled the city. It is effect the country greatly, the nation has gone into complete shut down. The crisis has had an impact on the political landscape of East Timor. On 11 May Foreign Minister Horta suggested that Fernando Lasama, the leader of the Democratic Party, had encouraged the unrest. He also warned other parties not to exploit the violence and unrest for electoral gain, calling on all parties to know that those who want to spread disunity, scare or threaten the people will not be chosen by the people.