José Manuel Ramos-Horta GCL GColIH is an East Timorese politician. He has been the president of East Timor since 2022, having previously also held the position from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2006 and Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007. He was a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as East Timor's first president since its re-establishment of independence, from 2002 to 2007.
Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor and the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco. The first inhabitants are thought to be descendant of Australoid and Melanesian peoples. The Portuguese began to trade with Timor by the early 16th century and colonised it throughout the mid-century. Skirmishing with the Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty for which Portugal ceded the western half of the island. Imperial Japan occupied East Timor during World War II, but Portugal resumed colonial authority after the Japanese surrender.
The culture of Timor-Leste reflects numerous cultural influences, including Portuguese, Roman Catholic, and Malay, on the indigenous Austronesian cultures in Timor-Leste.
Mari bin Amude Alkatiri is a Timorese politician. He was Prime Minister of East Timor from May 2002 until his resignation on 26 June 2006 following weeks of political unrest in the country, and again from September 2017 until May 2018. He is the Secretary-General of the Fretilin party and was the former President of the Special Administrative Region of Oecusse.
The national flag of Timor-Leste consists of a red field with the black isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side bearing a white five-pointed star in the center superimposed on the larger yellow triangle, also based on the hoist-side, that extends to the center of the flag.
Francisco Xavier do Amaral was an East Timorese politician. A founder of the Frente Revolucionária de Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin), Amaral was sworn in as the first President of East Timor when the country, then a Portuguese colony, made a unilateral declaration of independence on 28 November 1975. He was a member of the National Parliament for the Timorese Social Democratic Association from 2001 until his death in 2012. Amaral was also known as "Abo (Grandfather) Xavier", a term of endearment, by East Timorese.
The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus, began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin government that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and short-lived Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation in which approximately 100,000–180,000 soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed or starved to death. The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documented a minimum estimate of 102,000 conflict-related deaths in East Timor throughout the entire period from 1974 to 1999, including 18,600 violent killings and 84,200 deaths from disease and starvation; Indonesian forces and their auxiliaries combined were responsible for 70% of the killings.
Estanislau da Conceição Aleixo Maria da Silva is an East Timorese politician and a key member of Fretilin. He was acting Prime Minister from May 2007 to August 2007.
Baucau Airport, formerly Cakung Airport, is an unattended and mostly unused airport near Baucau, East Timor. It is the largest airport in East Timor and has a much longer runway than Dili's Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport, long enough to handle large commercial airliners.
The Indonesian occupation of East Timor began in December 1975 and lasted until October 1999. After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal led to the decolonisation of its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain. After a small-scale civil war, the pro-independence Fretilin declared victory in the capital city of Dili and declared an independent East Timor on 28 November 1975.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and the minor islands of Atauro and Jaco. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is 14,950 square kilometres (5,770 sq mi). Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.
Bilateral relations exist between Australia and East Timor. The two countries are near neighbours with close political and trade ties. East Timor, the youngest and one of the poorest countries in Asia, lies about 610 kilometres northwest of the Australian city of Darwin. Australia has played a prominent role in the young republic's history.
Rosa Filomena "Muki" Cardoso Bonaparte Soares was an East Timorese revolutionary and women's rights activist. Born in what was then Portuguese Timor, in 1973 she won a scholarship to study in Portugal, where she joined the Casa dos Timores and became involved in Marxist and anti-colonial politics. Returning to Timor in late 1974, she was a founding member of Fretilin and served on the party's central committee. Known for her intensity and small figure, she was called "the petite revolutionary", "Rosa Luxemburg", and to her Fretilin comrades, "Muki".
Chinese people in Timor-Leste consist of Chinese migrants to Timor-Leste and their descendants. The Chinese minority is a small proportion of the East Timorese population and most are Hakka and a small number of Cantonese within the populace. Many Chinese left during the mid-1970s.
Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 22 July 2017. Fretilin narrowly emerged as the largest party in the National Parliament, winning 23 seats to the 22 won by the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, which had been the largest party in the outgoing Parliament.
Rosária Maria Corte-Real was the Minister of Education and Culture in East Timor from 2006 to 2007. She was also responsible for youth and sports. She is a member of FRETILIN.
Anarchism in Timor-Leste has its roots in the country's history as a penal colony, when many anarchists were deported there. The movement eventually evolved into an anti-colonial struggle against succeeding occupying powers: first the Portuguese Empire, then the Japanese Empire and the Indonesian New Order, before the country finally achieved independence in 2002.
Hernâni Filomena Maria Coelho da Silva, also known by his nom de guerreNatan, is an East Timorese politician and diplomat, and a member of the Fretilin political party. He has been the East Timorese Ambassador to both Australia and South Korea. Between February 2015 and September 2017, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and from October 2017 to June 2018 he was Minister of Petroleum.
The 1975 Council of Ministers was the Council of Ministers formed by the Fretilin political party in 1975 as the inaugural administration or cabinet of the Democratic Republic of East Timor proclaimed in November 1975.
