Timor-Leste PM thanks international community on anniversary of independence vote
DILI, Timor-Leste: Timor-Leste’s leader thanked the international community on Friday (Aug 30) as his country celebrated the 25th anniversary of its referendum on independence from Indonesia, with visiting UN chief Antonio Guterres urging the world to do more to support the young democracy.
Thousands of citizens flocked to a stadium in the capital Dili to commemorate the tiny Southeast Asian nation’s 1999 vote, which paved the way for its current democratic system.
“Remember, our nation’s independence is also thanks to the solidarity and efforts of the international community … especially the United Nations, which helped with the referendum process on Aug 30, 1999,” Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said at the event, which was also attended by Guterres and Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta.
The poll saw nearly 80 per cent of Timorese vote to split from Indonesia, ending a brutal 24-year military occupation that claimed up to 250,000 lives through fighting, disease and starvation.
The vote briefly sparked joy before Indonesian security forces and militias destroyed infrastructure and displaced hundreds of thousands to other parts of Indonesia.
The post-referendum terror killed around 1,400 people before the mainly Catholic country of 1.34 million was recognised as an independent state in 2002.
