Welcome EAST TIMOR AMATEUR RADIO PROJECT web site!
This Project Cooperation Amateur Radio From Europeans Amateur Radio Operators and Future Amateur radio from Timor Loro Sae.
THE WORLD'S NEWEST DEMOCRACY
Occupying 24,000 square kilometers on the eastern half of an island in the
Timor Sea between Indonesia and Australia, East Timor has a
population of
approximately 800,000 people.
In May 2002, after 450 years of continuous
foreign occupation, East
Timor
became the world's newest independent state.
The island of Timor lies
towards the eastern end of the chain of Indonesian
islands running from
Malaya, through Sumatra and Java, to new Guinea.
The island is divided
into two parts. Most of the western half remains part of
Indonesia. The
eastern half forms the bulk of the national territory of
Timor, with its
capital at Dili on the northern coast, a small enclave in the western half
around the town of Oecussi, and the
small island of Atauro, 30km (19
miles) north of Dili.
The pre-occupation history of Timor is sketchy. The migration
of various
peoples along the South East Asian
monsoon track from northwest to
southeast evidently led to the population of the island by a
civilization
that had no written records but worked
in iron and had a relatively
sophisticated system of agriculture.
The island was linked into a regional trading system centered on Java, which extended as far as China and India.
The Portuguese first arrived on the island in the early 16th
century and
by the 1550s had occupied the eastern part. The Dutch took control
of the
western part, which became part of the
Dutch East Indies and, after
independence, Indonesia.
During the World War II,
Portugal, then governed by a fascist
dictatorship, was formally neutral a status
which extended to its
colonies. However, this did not prevent allied units from moving into East
Timor at the end of 1941, apparently to pre-empt a Japanese
invasion. The
Japanese did indeed invade, in February
1942, defeating the combined
Dutch/Australian forces and occupying the territory until its
liberation
in 1945. Portugal regained possession and remained in
control until the
1974 Portuguese Revolution. In 1975,
the new left-wing Portuguese
government relinquished all of its colonies. East Timor then enjoyed
just
a few days of independence, before the Indonesians, who had
long coveted
the territory, annexed it as their 27th province. There was
little local
resistance and the international community largely
acquiesced. The main
Timorense independence movement FRETILIN (Frente
Revolucionaria de Leste
Timor Independent), which was originally formed to fight the
Portuguese,
now had to gear up again to combat a new and even more brutal occupier. In
the savage counter-insurgency campaign that followed, the Indonesian
army
killed over 100,000 East Timorese.
With the capture of the legendary FRETILIN leader, Xanana Gusmão, in
1992,
the prospects for the movement appeared bleak. It was not
until the 1997
Asian economic crisis and the subsequent removal
of veteran Indonesian
President Suharto (see Indonesia section) that the growing
international
criticism of the Indonesian campaign began to have some
effect. In June
1999, President Habibie of Indonesia suddenly announced that a
referendum
would be held in East Timor, offering
independence or autonomy within
Indonesia. The referendum was held in August 1999 and 80
per cent opted
for independence. By way of revenge, the Indonesian army, along with local
militias that they had armed and
financed, indulged in an orgy of
destruction and killing that displaced hundreds of thousands of people and
destroyed the territory's already fragile economic base. A UN transitional
administration (UNTAET) set up shop in East Timor, pending the
conduct of
national elections. The assembly poll, which
was held in August 2001,
returned as expected a large majority
for FRETILIN candidates. The
Presidency, contested in April 2002, was won by Xanana Gusmão, with a
huge
majority. Mari Alkatiri, also of FRETILIN, is the new premier.
The home page is a good spot to let visitors know the purpose of this web
site. The home page gives visitors an impression of your site's style.
This page was last updated on 01/21/06.
Sobre o tema de radioamadorismo foram ainda publicados dois artigos no Jornal Nacional Semanário de Timor Leste (um dos quais ainda pode ser lido em http://www.semanario.tp/informacao.htm
Any
requested information goes here:
AMATEUR
RADIO EAST TIMOR PROJECT
F.a.o. José Carlos Cardoso,CT1ERC / 4W6ERC
F.ao. Manuel A.C.Marques,CT1BWW
P.o.Box
41 - 2780-901 OEIRAS
PORTUGAL
(Europe)
Copyright or other proprietary statement goes here.
For problems or questions regarding this web contact [ct1bww].
Last updated: Janeiro 21, 2006
.
