Eurico Barros Gomes Guterres is a pro-Indonesian, anti-Timorese independence militiaman recruited by the Indonesian military during East Timor's bid for independence between 1999 and 2000. He was involved in several massacres in East Timor, and was a chief militia leader during the post-independence massacres and destruction of the capital Dili.
East Timor was a de facto province of Indonesia that existed between 1976 and 1999 during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. Its territory corresponded to the previous Portuguese Timor and to the present-day independent country of Timor-Leste.
The Liquiçá Church massacre was a mass-killing that occurred in April 1999, during East Timor's bid for independence. It was the first case to be heard by the Second Special Panel.
Besi Merah Putih, meaning 'red and white iron' in Indonesian, was the official name of an East Timor, approximately 200-strong, pro-Indonesia militia (Wanra). It operated in Maubara, in the district of Liquiçá, and in the neighbourhood of the river Lóis, west of the capital Dili, under the leadership of Manuel de Sousa and with the support of Leoneto Martins, the district administrator (Bupati) of Liquiçá. It was founded on 27 December 1998 in Cai-Cassa, East Timor. The Indonesian ex-general Prabowo had direct links to Besi Merah Putih and trained members at a Kopassus base near Bogor in West Java. Tomé Diogo is also rumoured to have direct links to the BMP. The Indonesian army member is said to have led the militia directly.
Aitarak was the name of a pro-Indonesia militia group in East Timor during the late 1990s. On April 17, 1999, the group conducted 12 murders at the Manuel Carrascalão House massacre in Dili. That same month members took part in the Liquiçá Church massacre. At its height, the group was led by Eurico Guterres.
Liquiçá is a coastal city in East Timor, 32 km to the west of Dili, the national capital. Liquiçá is the capital of Liquiçá District. The city has a population of 5,005 inhabitants.
The Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor originally began as the military wing of the Fretilin party of East Timor. It was established on 20 August 1975 in response to Fretilin's political conflict with the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT).
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 regime 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.
José Abílio Osório Soares was an Indonesian politician. He was the last governor of the Indonesian province of East Timor before the country's independence.
An independence referendum was held in East Timor on 30 August 1999, organised by United Nations Mission in East Timor. The referendum's origins lay with the request made by the President of Indonesia, B. J. Habibie, to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 27 January 1999, for the United Nations to hold a referendum, whereby East Timor would be given choice of either greater autonomy within Indonesia or independence.
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.
The 1999 East Timorese crisis began with attacks by pro-Indonesia militia groups on civilians, and expanded to general violence throughout the country, centred in the capital Dili. The violence intensified after a majority of eligible East Timorese voters voted for independence from Indonesia. Some 1,400 civilians are believed to have died. A UN-authorized force (INTERFET) consisting mainly of Australian Defence Force personnel was deployed to East Timor to establish and maintain peace.
East Timor and Indonesia established diplomatic relations in 2002. Both share the island of Timor. Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed East Timor in 1976, maintaining East Timor as its 27th province until a United Nations-sponsored referendum in 1999, in which the people of East Timor chose independence. Following a United Nations interim administration, East Timor gained independence in 2002. Indonesia already had a consulate in Dili during the Portuguese colonial period, though Indonesia formalized their relations by establishing an embassy in Dili. Since October 2002, East Timor has an embassy in Jakarta and consulates in Denpasar and Kupang. Relations between the two countries are generally considered highly positive, despite various problems. Numerous agreements regulate cooperation in different areas. East Timorese are visa-free in Indonesia.
The Santa Cruz massacre was the murder of at least 250 East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and is part of the East Timor genocide.
The Indonesia–Timor Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship was a truth commission established jointly by the governments of Indonesia and East Timor in August 2005. The commission was officially created to investigate acts of violence that occurred around the independence referendum held in East Timor in 1999 and sought to find the "conclusive truth" behind the events. After holding private hearings and document reviews, the commission handed in the final report on July 15, 2008 to the presidents of both nations, and was fully endorsed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, providing the first acknowledgement by the government of Indonesia of the human rights violations committed by state institutions in Timor. The commission is notable for being the first modern truth commission to be bilateral.
The East Timor genocide refers to the "pacification campaigns" of state terrorism which were waged by the Indonesian New Order government during the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor. The majority of sources consider the Indonesian killings in East Timor to constitute genocide, while other scholars disagree on certain aspects of the definition.
The Kraras massacre was a series of mass killings committed by the Indonesian Army, along with Timorese Hansip members, in August and September 1983 in Kraras, Viqueque Municipality, East Timor. More than 200 civilians, mostly men, died in the killings. The region is now known as the "Valley of Widows".
Brigadier General Filomeno da Paixão de Jesus is an East Timorese politician and former senior officer in the Timor Leste Defence Force (F-FDTL). From July 2018 to July 2023, he was Minister of Defense, serving in the VIII Constitutional Government of East Timor led by Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak. Between October 2011 and July 2018, he was the Deputy Chief of the F-FDTL.
João da Costa Tavares was the Commander-in-Chief of the pro-Indonesian Militia in East Timor. He was also a pro-integration militiamen.
The Timorese Labor Party, or Trabalhista for short, is one of the five parties in East Timor founded as early as 1974. The party describes itself as democratic and socialist, comparable to the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It has its headquarters in Dili on Rua de Bé Fonte in Bairo Formosa (Gricenfor).
