Free determination and genocide in East Timor

Abstract

The island of Timor is the largest and easternmost of the Nusatenggara (or Lesser Sundas) group. It is situated between the Timor Sea and the Pacific Ocean, some 300 miles north of Australia and 700 southeast of Java. The eastern side of the island, together with the Oecussi enclave in the west, and the smaller islands of Atauro and Jaco, comprise approximately 13,000 square miles? Portugal colonized East Timor during more than four hundred years, although the actual delimitation of the territory with the Netherlands only took place in the mid-19 th century. When its people was about to exercise the right to self-determination, the territory was militarily occupied and illegally annexed by its closest neighbor, Indonesia. During almost 25 years, Indonesia practiced upon the East Timorese people one of the largest scale violations of fundamental human rights, including the right of this people to exist as such, of this century. The reaction of the international community was near non-existent and the so-called"Question of East Timor" seemed to fade away in the night of times. But in the beginning of 1999, things seemed to change. The new Indonesian government agreed to hold a popular consultation that could, eventually, lead to the independence of the territory. It was a second opportunity for the people of East Timor. And in spite of all the suffering; despite the many pitfalls of the legal framework for the consultation; despite the fact that Indonesia (and its powerful Army) has not fulfilled its obligations; and despite the sometimes ambiguous attitude of the great powers and, thus, of the United Nations, East Timor was capable of holding a referendum that, in the long term, has led it to become the first independent state of the 21st Century. In its recent history, thus, the territory has moved from the exercise of its right of self-determination to genocide, back and forth, in a process that has recently ended with the full application of international human right standards. In this article, the author intends to offer an overview of the legal and human rights situation in East Timor, from the double perspective of an international lawyer and of a direct observer of the self-determination process that took place in the territory in August 1999. Although Timor Lorosae achieved independence on 20th May 2002, after more than two years of international administration, we shall limit our analysis to the period around the holding of the popular consultation.