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West Timor
Executive Summary
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Timor is the easternmost island in the Lesser Sunda Islands and is part of the Nusa Tenggara archipelago. It has a long history of colonialism, occupation and division. First colonized by the Portuguese in 1520 and split between the Portuguese and Dutch in the 1640s, the two parts of Timor have become substantially different over the years, despite the fact that both were integrated into Indonesia by 1975. This difference ultimately helped increase the tensions that exploded in the violence of 1999. At that time, East Timor voted to declare its independence, which some in Indonesia were not ready to permit.
The 1999 outbreak of militia violence in 1999 resulted in massacres as well as the displacement of over 500,000 East Timorese, 200,000 of which were forced to relocate to West Timor. Since then, many East Timorese refugees have been languishing in refugee camps where they have continued to be subjected to militia attacks. The campaign of violence waged by the militias in the refugee camps seeks to reincorporate East Timor into Indonesia by terrorizing former pro-independence sympathizers. The situation is made worse by the close ties that exist between the leadership of the Indonesian government and its military, the TNI, and the leadership of the militias. While the repatriation of these refugees has been substantially hindered by militia activity, many are still trying to return home. West Timor’s Governor has also asked that the process be expedited because of the economic burden the refugees present to the West Timorese economy.
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