East Timor refugees Macao immigrants

East Timor fought the war of independence for 24 years.

East Timor is located in the east of Timor Island, bordering West Timor in Indonesia in the west and facing Australia across the Timor Sea in the south, covering an area of about1.5000 square kilometers. /kloc-Before the 6th century, Timor Island was divided into the kingdom of Sri Lanka with Sumatra as the center and the ruling kingdom of Manchu with Java as the center. /kloc-At the beginning of the 6th century, Portugal invaded Timor Island.

After that, the Netherlands occupied West Timor and pushed Portuguese forces into East Timor. During this period, Britain occupied West Timor briefly, but it was finally recaptured by the Netherlands. 1859, Portugal and the Netherlands signed a treaty to re-divide Timor Island. East Timor Island (East Timor) belongs to Portugal, and west Timor is merged into Dutch East India (Indonesia).

During World War II, Japan occupied East Timor. After the end of World War II, East Timor was once under the jurisdiction of Australia, and then returned to the hands of Portuguese colonists and became an overseas province of Portugal. From 65438 to 0974, Portugal began to decolonize and abandoned its overseas colonies, which led to the independence of Portuguese colonies all over the world.

1975165438+1On October 28th, East Timor declared its independence, but it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia nine days later. 1976 became the East Timor Province of Indonesia in July. From the moment the country was occupied, East Timor and Indonesia waged a 24-year war of independence. However, due to the disparity in strength between the two sides, some independent members of East Timor had to go into exile and seek foreign assistance.

Others who advocate independence stay at home and continue to fight the Indonesian army. In order to suppress the East Timor independence movement, on the one hand, Indonesia sent an army to brutally encircle the East Timor independence army, on the other hand, it massacred East Timorese on a large scale. 197 financial crisis broke out,198 Indonesian strongman President Suharto stepped down.

From 65438 to 0999, the new Indonesian President Habibie agreed that East Timor would choose autonomy or secession from Indonesia through a referendum. After that, with the support of the United Nations and Portugal, East Timor voted for national self-determination and 78.5% people voted for independence. However, this result made the Indonesian military very unhappy. They launched a massacre and 200,000 East Timorese refugees fled to West Timor.

1In September 1999, Australian peacekeeping troops entered East Timor, forcing the Indonesian military to accept the reality. In June 5438+10 of the same year, Indonesian troops left East Timor and were entrusted by peacekeeping forces. On May 20, 2002, East Timor officially declared its independence, and more than 200,000 refugees returned one after another. Although the country became independent, those East Timorese killed by Indonesia in pursuit of independence could never come back.

According to the report of the United Nations, during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation of East Timor, 250,000 East Timorese died in the pursuit of independence, most of whom died of hunger and disease. Because Indonesia tried to use "hunger" as a weapon to "exterminate" East Timorese, in order to punish these rebels seeking independence. For example, napalm bombs and chemical weapons were used against East Timorese, which seriously polluted the food and drinking water resources of East Timorese and caused a large number of deaths.

In the 24-year war of independence, 250,000 people died, but the population of East Timor was less than 6,543.8+0,000 at that time. It was not until 2006 that the population of East Timor exceeded 1 10,000 for the first time. In other words, East Timor paid a heavy price for independence, but this spirit is admirable!