Thousands of people turned out on Friday night to celebrate East Timor's in...
SYDNEY - Thousands of people turned out on Friday night to celebrate East Timor’s independence on the 20th anniversary of the 1999 referendum that led to the end of Indonesian occupation.
East Timor celebrates the date as August 30 was the day they got the chance to vote for freedom from 24 years of a brutal Indonesian occupation marked by torture and extrajudicial killings. The killings began even before Indonesia officially invaded the former Portuguese colony in December 1975, unopposed by Australia.
The massacre was filmed by international reporters and the footage caused outrage around the world, galvanizing support worldwide for East Timorese independence.By September, when the results became clear that 78 percent of voters had chosen to leave Jakarta, Indonesia’s security forces began a rampage of terror through the tiny Catholic territory, killing up to 1500 people and burning down 80 percent of the buildings in the country.
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