(This text is being separately posted in Portuguese to the Goa-Portuguese
mailing list)


At zero hours of today - local time (18h30 of the 19th in India and 14h00
also of the 19th in Portugal) a new nation was born: the Democratic Republic
of East Timor (Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste).

The island of Timor measures about 470 x 100 km with an area of 32,300 sq km
and a population of around 1,400,000. The Portuguese reached the island
somewhere between 1512 and 1516. In 1651 the western half of the island
(with the exception of Oecussi-Ambeno) was conquered by the Dutch and, when
Indonesia attained independence in 1945, was integrated in this country.
East Timor + Oecussi-Ambeno, with an area of 18,900 sq km, remained under
Portuguese domination until the Fretilin freedom movement made an unilateral
declaration of independence on November 25, 1975. This independence was not
recognised by any country and ten days later Indonesia marched in,
forcefully occupied the territory and later annexed it as its 27th province.
However, this occupation and annexation were also not recognised (except by
Australia) and the United Nations continued to classify it as a Portuguese
territory under foreign occupation. The East Timorese continued to fight for
their freedom and finally an internationally supervised referendum held late
August 1999 dictated by an overwhelming majority (around 78%) its secession
from Indonesia. Horrible killings, destruction and pillages followed, at the
hands of Timorese "militia" supported by Indonesian military people. Between
1942 and 1945 East Timor faced Japanese occupation, during which a few
thousands of the local population died. In mid-1975, two thousand died as a
result of pre-indepence struggles among three freedom movements then
existing, and in the long period of about 24 years of Indonesian domination
(December 1975 - October 1999) the population is estimated to have been
decimated of about 220,000 persons. (Present population of East Timor:
approx. 800,000).

Indonesian domination was followed by an interim administration by the
United Nations. Two years after the referendum, on August 30, 2001, a
Constituent Assembly was elected and Fretilin, the majority party, formed an
interim government headed by Mari Alkatiri, with Nobel Peace Prize
Co-awardee Jose Ramos Horta as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In April this
year Xanana (Jose Alexandre) Gusmao, contesting as a candidate of nine
parties, was elected President of the future country with over 85% of votes.
The Assembly, meanwhile, voted to continue to function after independence,
now as a regular Parliament.

Yesterday, May 19th, there was about to be a major diplomatic incident when
six Indonesian warships entered East Timorese territorial waters (and one of
them even went as far as berthing at the port of the capital) without
seeking prior clearance, allegedly to render protection to their President
Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri when she later came to attend the independence
ceremonies. They were ordered out and, fortunately, obeyed.

Besides elaborating and voting the constitution, the Constituent Assembly
also approved the national flag and anthem and decided that Portuguese and
the local Tetum would be the national languages of East Timor.

The venue selected for the independence ceremonies was a place 8 km distant
from the capital city of Dili, by name of Taci Tolo (= Three Lagoons) which
is now to
be renamed to honour the country's martyrs, many of whose dead bodies were
"buried" by the Indonesians in these lagoons. By 20h30 of the 19th (local
time) an open-air Holy Mass was attended by a crowd estimated at over
200,000. The main celebrant was the Vatican's permanent representative at
the United Nations Archbishop Renato Martino, at the special invitation of
Mgr. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Administrator Apostolic of the diocese of
Dili and co-awardee (with Ramos Horta) of Nobel Peace Prize. The celebrant
was sided by Bishop Belo and by the Administrator of East Timor's only other
diocese (Baucau) Bishop Basilio do Nascimento. I could not count the number
of cardinals, bishops and priests present. One could see in a prominent
place a statue of Our Lady of Fatima offered to Timor by the Portuguese
Marian Sanctuary and flown in from Portugal a few days before. The Mass,
interspersed with traditional religious songs in Tetum and dances, was
celebrated in Portuguese and lasted for about two hours, with the reading of
a message from Pope John Paul II as the last item. An inter-religious
celebration joining Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Muslims then took
place. These religious celebrations were followed, for another three hours,
by cultural programmes from East Timor's thirteen districts and the small
island of Atauro (which is in front of Dili).

At zero hours the UN flag was lowered while Barbara Hendricks sang
"Freedom".
The Secretary-General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Anan then made a speech
in English (immediately translated in Tetum) and handed over the
administration to the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Francisco Guterres who
then read the proclamation of the act of independence (or rather, as the
people like to call it, of the restoration of their
ten-day-long independence cut short by the Indonesians in December 1975).
The national flag having then been unfurled, the Speaker invested Xanana
Gusmao as President of the Republic. Xanana addressed to the new nation and
to the invitees (over ninety Heads of State and of Government, among whom
the Presidents of Indonesia and Portugal and the Prime Ministers of Portugal
and Australia, and also Bill Clinton during whose tenure as President of the
USA the UN intervened in East Timor in 1999) in English, Portuguese, Baasa
(Indonesian language) and Tetum.

Later during the day, President Xanana Gusmao, who is a Catholic (as the
majority of the population) formally invested the Government headed by Mari
Alkatiri (Muslim), the Government approved the resolutions to seek admission
in the United Nations Organisation and in CPLP (Commonwealth of Portuguese
Speaking Countries), and the Prime Ministers of East Timor and Australia
signed the agreement for the exploration of the petroleum-rich "Timor Gap".
The new country, one of the poorest in the world, is expected to start
drawing revenue from this exploration wef 2005. In the meantime it will
continue to get support from the international community. Portugal will also
continue to assist its former colony at least for another year, not only
financially but also by way of training the armed forces and security
personnel and as far as education (especially as regards the language) is
concerned.

East Timor is going to be the eighth (and last) member of CPLP (Commonwealth
of Portuguese Speaking Countries), side by side with Angola, Brazil, Cape
Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome & Principe.

Viva Timor-Leste!

Jorge de Abreu Noronha