East Timor votes for independence

On 30 August 1999 the people of East Timor voted in a UN-run ballot on whether to accept special autonomy within Indonesia or to move toward independence. More than 98 percent of registered voters took part, and about 78.5 percent rejected autonomy. When the results were announced on 4 September, pro-Indonesian militias, with backing from elements of the Indonesian army, began a campaign of killing, burning and forced deportation. Many hundreds were killed, and several hundred thousand people were driven from their homes.¹²

The vote was possible because Indonesia's president, B. J. Habibie, who took over after Suharto's fall in 1998, announced in January 1999 that East Timor could choose. Indonesia, Portugal and the UN signed an agreement in May, and the UN mission, UNAMET, organized the ballot despite threats and intimidation. After the vote Indonesian forces and militia destroyed much of the capital, Dili, and the country's infrastructure. International pressure, including from the United States, led Indonesia to agree to a foreign force.¹

INTERFET, an international force led by Australia under Major General Peter Cosgrove, landed on 20 September 1999 and restored order. A UN transitional administration, UNTAET, governed until independence on 20 May 2002, when East Timor became the independent state of Timor-Leste, with Xanana Gusmao as its first president. It was the first new sovereign nation of the twenty-first century. Timor-Leste has since faced poverty, periods of unrest, and heavy dependence on oil revenue, but it has remained a democracy. It joined ASEAN as its eleventh member in 2025.¹