Lasiana Beach, East Timor

In May 2002 after 450 years of foreign occupation continues Timor became an independent state in the new worlds. However, East Timor, road to independence is long and traumatic.

The first Portuguese arrived on the island in the 16th century and the 1550 had occupied the eastern part. The Dutch took control of the western part, which is part of the Dutch East Indies and, after independence, Indonesia.In 1975, the new leftist government of Portugal has given up all its colonies. East Timor, then enjoyed a few days of independence, before the Indonesians annexed its 27th province. There was little local resistance and the international community largely accepted.

The main independence movement of East Timor, FRETILIN (Revolutionary Front of Timor Este Independente), which was originally formed to fight the Portuguese, now had to prepare for new fight against a new occupant and even more brutal. In the campaign against wild-insurgency that followed, the Indonesian army has killed more than 100,000 East Timorese. It was not until the 1997 economic crisis in Asia and the subsequent removal of veteran Indonesian President Suharto that the growing international criticism of the Indonesian campaign began to have some effect.