East Timor celebrates 20 years since independence vote

The Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Friday celebrated its 20th anniversary as an independent state since the UN-backed referendum of 1999.

The country's capital Dili saw its streets lined with banners and flags, with people taking part in traditional dances and parades.

"I'm very pleased with what we have acheived in terms of how far we have come from the utter destruction, the violence unleashed following the referendum 20 years ago," the East Timorese Nobel Peace laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta told DW.

"The country has been dramatically transformed for the better," said the former resistance leader. Ramos-Horta went on to become the country's first foreign minister, and later its president and prime minister.

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Years of bloodshed and terror

On August 30, 1999, nearly 80 percent of East Timorese voted to split from Indonesia, who had taken over the colony from Portugal in 1975.

East Timor had witnessed 24 years of warfare, disease, and starvation under the Indonesian military. An estimated 250,000 lives were lost through fighting and disease.

After the 1999 referendum, Indonesian security forces and proxy militias destroyed infrastucture in a burning rampage and hundreds of thousands of people became misplaced and forced to escape to other parts of Indonesia.

Australian-led United Nations peacekeepers were deployed in a failed attempt to control the violence.

The majority Catholic nation of 1.3 million was officially recognized as an independent state in 2002.

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Justice still not served

Many families of those killed during the wave of violence are still waiting for justice to be served.

"The Indonesian military and militias murdered people who chose to make this an independent nation," said Vital Bere Saldanha, who saw four of his brothers die in the uprising. "The fight for freedom wasn't easy."

In 2008, a joint Indonesia-East Timor truth and reconciliation commission uncovered gross rights violations during Indonesian occupation and the 1999 referendum.

Leaders from both nations ruled out prosecuting military leaders while the United Nations failed to prosecute army commanders for crimes aainst humanity.

Read more: Indonesia blocks internet in Papua amid unrest

"We in the international community have miserably failed in preventing conflicts," Ramos-Horta told DW.

The country is also facing other major challenges. The Word Bank estimates that 40% of East Timorese live in poverty.

The nation's oil revenues are facing a steep decline and few other productive economic sectors are in place to boost growth.

"We still have extreme poverty…This is simply unacceptable and we have to accept the failure," the Nobel prize winner acknowledged.

mvb/rt (AFP, AP, INA)
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