Country Profiles: East Timor

Official name: Democratic Republic of East Timor

Official languages: Portuguese and Tetum

Land area: 5,743 sq mi/14,874 sq km

Population: 1,192,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital: Dili

Current leader: President Jose Ramos-Horta

East Timor is a small country in Southeast Asia. It occupies the eastern part of the island of Timor. The western half is part of Indonesia. The island is in Timor Sea, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of Australia. East Timor’s terrain is mostly rugged and mountainous.

 East Timor is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. It depends mainly on agriculture for its economy. There is oil and gas off the coast but the country currently has no oil industry.

 The Portuguese and the Dutch arrived on the island and began trading with the people and by the 1700’s the island was under complete rule of Portugal and the Netherlands. In 1859 the two countries formally split control of the island. The Netherlands took the western half and incorporated it into the Dutch East Indies. Portugal made the eastern half a colony, calling it Portuguese Timor.

 In 1975 Portugal withdrew from East Timor and in November that year East Timor declared independence. But in December, Indonesia invaded and quickly took possession of the newly-independent country. The following year Indonesia annexed East Timor. As many as 200,000 East Timorese died of starvation and disease and thousands were imprisoned during Indonesian rule.

 In 1999, under increasing international pressure, Indonesia allowed the East Timorese to vote on whether to become independent or become an autonomous province under Indonesian rule. Almost 80 percent favored independence and opponents of independence quickly launched a campaign of terror with the help of the Indonesian military. The United Nations stepped in to quell the violence and Indonesia, once again under international pressure, finally relinquished its claim to East Timor.