East Timor

<p>East Timor is the East half of a small island in the Indonesian archipelago no larger than the state of Connecticut. These peoples endured colonial rule for more than four centuries by the Dutch Portuguese Japanese and Indonesians. In 1999 25 years after declaring itself free and independent the international community woke up to the tiny cry for self-determination. This paper chronicles the history of the East Timorese from early Dutch colonial rule in the 1600s to its independence made possible by a coalition of the willing intervention force led by Australia - INTERFET. The operation was successful with clear goals mandate and exit strategy. It formed very quickly in response to human rights abuses becoming ever more public in the international media stage. With Indonesia's permission INTERFET forces entered East Timor after a referendum for self-determination facilitated by the UN election assistance team UNAMET. The resulting vote for independence triggered an apparent premeditated scorched earth plan of destruction by Indonesian armed forces. Within four months INTERFET restored peace and handed control of East Timor to a UN transitional government that guided East Timor to sovereignty. On 20 May 2002 East Timor became an independent state and INTERFET became the standard by which all other armed interventions will be measured.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>