Timor-Leste, one of the youngest countries in the world, is about to mark the 20th anniversary of its independence - and New Zealand played an important if belated role in its struggle for sovereignty
It was the first new state of the 21st century, but the lead-up to Timor-Leste’s formal independence in 2002 was both hard-fought and fraught with danger.
“The place was burning, there was a massive displacement of people, the militias were creating havoc, and there were lives lost and a lot of places destroyed and burned down - it was on the brink of catastrophe,” Phil Twyford says.
Now a government minister, Twyford at the time headed up Oxfam New Zealand and was among human rights activists pushing Aotearoa and others to provide greater support to the independence cause.
The former Portuguese colony had briefly declared its independence in late 1975, before neighbouring Indonesia invaded and declared it a province - the start of over two decades of human rights abuses and attempts to crush internal resistance.
New Zealand and Australia had both opted against supporting the push for independence due to the belief it wasn’t viable, Twyford said, while ministers went as far as refusing to meet Timorese representatives “because they didn’t want to raise expectations”.
But attitudes began to change in the 1990s, Victoria University of Wellington strategic studies professor Robert Ayson says, with the situations in Timor and the similarly placed Balkan state of Kosovo capturing headlines and leading to calls for intervention.
“There was this kind of wave that had been building up since the 90s, of the desire of the international community to be more active…
“The other day when Parliament united in a statement of support for Ukraine and opposition to Russia, it reminded me of when the same sort of thing happened in Parliament [for Timor-Leste] - it was a unifying moment.”
The resignation in 1998 of Indonesian President Suharto, who had overseen the invasion of Timor-Leste, was also an important moment in the independence push, with Ayson saying countries had seen Suharto as a stabilising influence and were therefore reluctant to intervene.
“A mobilising factor was the idea that New Zealand and Australia needed to put right that wrong that happened in 1975, in terms of the unwillingness to take Suharto on.”
“It wasn't a classic UN mission, it was more of a UN-supported ‘coalition of the willing’ with Australian leadership, and…there was hardly a more important partner for Australia in East Timor than New Zealand.” - Robert Ayson, Victoria University of Wellington
Suharto’s successor B.J. Habibie agreed to a referendum under pressure from Australia, and in August 1999 nearly 80 percent of Timorese voted in favour of independence.
But the result sparked a wave of violence from pro-Indonesian militias, leading to the eventual deployment of an Australian-led multinational peacekeeping force before a United Nations force replaced it.
Between 1999 and 2002, nearly 5000 NZ Defence personnel served in East Timor - the largest single deployment since the Korean War of the 1950s - and Twyford says there is good reason to be positive about New Zealand’s role.
“It's regarded internationally as having been a very successful intervention, it stabilised the situation and created the conditions for the UN mission that came in…for both New Zealand and Australia, it was a very positive expression of our commitment to supporting human rights and self-determination.”
Ayson says New Zealand’s willingness to deploy into the riskier parts of the country, with uncertainty about exactly what the militias in operation would do, had also helped to win the respect of Canberra at a time when Helen Clark’s new Labour government was proposing significant changes to the armed forces.
“It wasn't a classic UN mission, it was more of a UN-supported ‘coalition of the willing’ with Australian leadership, and…there was hardly a more important partner for Australia in East Timor than New Zealand.”
With control handed from the UN to the East Timor government itself, the country officially declared its independence on May 20, 2002. Two decades on, the country is still in a relatively peaceful and drama-free era, Ayson says.
Damien Kingsley, an emeritus professor at Melbourne’s Deakin University who coordinated the largest international observer group to Timor-Leste’s 1999 independence ballot, likewise shares a positive view of the situation the country finds itself in.
“There is a strong institutional and personal commitment to democracy which is, on balance, quite healthy.”
The “main glitch”, Kingsley says, is an ongoing feud between former leaders Xanana Gusmão and Mari Alkatiri which dates back to the time of occupation.
Old revolutionaries continue to loom large in the country’s politics: last month, former resistance leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta was elected as the Timor-Leste president, having previously served in the role between 2007 and 2012.
“Timor-Leste culture venerates age and the generation of resistance - that won't change until they die off,” Kingsley says.
The biggest issue facing the country is the management of its petroleum fund, with draw-downs of capital exceeding sustainable withdrawal levels and the Timor Sea having effectively stopped producing oil.
“The issue is what happens when Timor-Leste runs out of money, or how it slows government spending, which underpins the economy, before it completely runs dry.”
External aid still plays a significant role, with Twyford saying Timor-Leste is home to one of New Zealand’s largest aid programmes outside the South Pacific.
“The Indonesian occupation was tough, and it was really just the courage and bravery of the Timorese during that time which stood out.” - Phil Twyford
Some human rights observers have sought to draw parallels between Timorese history and the situation in West Papua, an Indonesian province which has been pushing for independence since the 1960s.
Exiled independence leader Benny Wenda has called on the world to stop West Papua becoming “the next East Timor”. But there is a significant difference, Kingsley notes, with Timor-Leste never having been recognised by the UN as part of Indonesia but the same not true for West Papua.
While the Government has faced criticism for its silence over the situation in West Papua, Twyford plays down the parallels: “I don’t think the West Papua issue is where the Timorese issue is in terms of the demand for independence.”
But he is full of praise for Timor-Leste as the young country prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
“The people of Timor really waged an heroic struggle against the odds to establish their nation: they were right at the tail end of this wave of decolonisation that swept the globe from the end of the Second World War…
“The Indonesian occupation was tough, and it was really just the courage and bravery of the Timorese during that time which stood out.”
