All events · Cold War Proxies

Indonesian Invasion and Occupation of East Timor, and 1999 Violence

1975–1999 · East & Southeast Asia

Displacement Territory Seized Mass Killing Sexual Violence

Displaced

500,000

in September 1999 alone, the UN estimates up to 500,000 people (about two-thirds of the population) were displaced, including roughly 250,000–300,000 forcibly deported to West Timor; over the full 1975–99 occupation Timor-Leste's CAVR commission estimated 102,800–183,000 conflict-related deaths, with hundreds of thousands more displaced into strategic hamlets over the years

Share of the population affected

77%

of the population of Portuguese Timor at the Indonesian invasion of December 1975, 1975

Killed

102,800–183,000

excess mortality incl. disease and starvation

Territory

14,874 km²

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor, approximately 14,874 km2, invaded and annexed by Indonesia in 1975–76

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What happened

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in December 1975, shortly after it declared independence, and formally annexed it in 1976 in a move the UN never recognized. The occupation that followed, marked by counterinsurgency campaigns and forced resettlement into strategic hamlets, is estimated by Timor-Leste's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) to have caused 102,800 to as many as 183,000 conflict-related deaths and displaced far more. After East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum in August 1999, pro-Indonesia militias backed by elements of the Indonesian military carried out a scorched-earth campaign, killing an estimated 1,000-1,400 people and displacing up to 500,000, including some 250,000-300,000 forcibly deported to West Timor. International intervention (INTERFET) restored order, and East Timor achieved formal independence in 2002.

Parties

Indonesia invaded and annexed the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975; pro-Indonesia militias, backed by the Indonesian military, drove mass displacement after the 1999 independence referendum

Disputed

Indonesia characterized the 1975 intervention as a response to civil instability and anti-colonial disorder; East Timorese resistance groups, the UN, and most historians describe it as an illegal invasion and occupation; casualty and displacement estimates also vary significantly between CAVR's findings and other sources.

The denominator

The Portuguese census of 1970 counted 609,477 people, and the usual estimate for 1975 is about 650,000; the CAVR truth commission used a 1975 baseline in this range to estimate 102,800 conflict-related deaths. By 1999 the population had grown to roughly 890,000.

The affected figure refers mainly to the displacement of 1999, when the population was about 890,000, while the baseline is the population of 1975; the occupation also displaced hundreds of thousands into 'resettlement camps' in the late 1970s, so displacement happened in distinct waves a generation apart.

Where the baseline comes from

Indonesian occupation of East Timor — Wikipediaopen-edited
Demographics of East Timor — Wikipediaopen-edited

On the death toll

The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR, 'Chega!', 2005), using estimates produced by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, found the minimum number of conflict-related deaths for 1974-1999 to be 102,800 (±12,000), of which about 18,600 (±1,000) were killings and disappearances and about 84,200 (±12,000) were excess deaths from hunger and illness caused largely by forced displacement and military encirclement. HRDAG's upper bound, adjusting for loss of social memory, is roughly 183,000 hunger-and-illness deaths. The often-quoted 200,000 figure predates the CAVR and is an estimate rather than a measurement; Indonesian officials have historically disputed all of these totals. Combatant deaths are excluded from the CAVR estimates.

Documented forms of violence

Mass KillingSexual ViolenceTortureStarvation and SiegeArbitrary DetentionDestruction of Property

The CAVR ('Chega!', 2005) and its annexe by Geoffrey Robinson document mass killings, rape and other sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, the systematic burning of private homes and public buildings in 1999, and — for the occupation as a whole — some 84,200 deaths from hunger and illness caused by forced displacement and military encirclement.

Formal findings

Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR) (2005) — Its final report 'Chega!' attributed 102,800 Timorese deaths directly to the Indonesian occupation and named senior Indonesian commanders as responsible for the pattern of violations — source
Indonesia-Timor-Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) (2008) — Concluded that crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed in 1999 and that the Indonesian military and its auxiliaries were principally responsible; the CTF nonetheless declined to recommend prosecutions, which has been the main criticism of its report — source