East Timor 1999
- Artist
- Ian Timberlake
- Dates
- 25 Aug – 30 Sept 2026
An exhibition of Ian Timberlake's photos from East Timor (Timor-Leste) in 1999 during the last months of Indonesian occupation.
East Timor was under Portuguese influence and colonization for around 400 years. It declared independence on November 28, 1975, just days before Indonesia invaded on December 7, 1975, to begin a brutal 24-year occupation. On January 27, 1999, Indonesian President B.J. Habibie surprised the world by declaring that he would consider independence for East Timor if it did not accept Indonesia’s autonomy offer. This precipitated an August 30, 1999, referendum and the events depicted here.
Ian Timberlake was Afp's correspondent in East Timor from April 1999 to March 2000.
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Angry Timorese youth are restrained by United Nations peacekeepers at a demonstration demanding answers about the fate of David Alex, the Falantil guerrillas’ Baucau regional commander captured by the Indonesians in June 1997. Journalist John Martinkus begins his book “A Dirty Little War” describing his visit to Alex’s bush encampment earlier in 1997. -
The National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT, per the Portuguese acronym) was led by Xanana Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader released from prison in 1999 but still held under house arrest in Jakarta. In the months leading up to the referendum, the CNRT faced frequent attacks and intimidation. -
Dili, July 1: East Timorese university students protest Indonesia’s denial of permission for Jose Ramos-Horta to return to East Timor. Ramos-Horta was abroad when Indonesia invaded, prompting his decades-long diplomatic campaign on behalf of his people. He returned on December 1, 1999, and today is the country’s president. -
Maliana, August 18: Armed militiamen arrive at the compound of the United Nations Mission in East Timor in Maliana, a town where they attacked independence supporters. “The militias emerging in late 1998 and early 1999 were mostly directly linked to the Indonesian military,” concluded Chega!, the final report of the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation. -
Maliana, June 29: A militia member loiters near the UN compound in Maliana after attackers with large rocks damaged the compound. The “abruptness and ferocity of the attack rattled the UN officials”, John Martinkus wrote in “A Dirty Little War.” -
A man is helped after being evacuated to Dili from the Maliana militia attack. The attack by about 100 militiamen was the first violence against the United Nations Mission which had begun deploying the previous month. One UN electoral officer as well as several East Timorese were injured. -
Dili, early May: Journalists filing their reports are taken in the back of a police truck away from Dili market where, Martinkus wrote, “someone had been shot dead… and then all hell had broken loose.” The journalists had arrived to cover the scene but found themselves surrounded by militia aiming guns at them. Indonesian police intervened to escort the journalists away “for their own safety.” -
Ian Martin headed the United Nations Mission in East Timor which organized the referendum on East Timor’s future. UN facilities came under repeated militia attacks. Timorese staff working for the UN were particularly targeted, resulting in a total of 15 dead. An unarmed US civilian police officer, Earl Candler, was severely wounded by gunfire while he and his unit tried to flee a militia-military attack on September 4. -
Gleno, May 1: People peer through the window at some of the 11 decomposing corpses that Indonesian police claimed were people who supported integration with Indonesia. The local military commander blamed the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) but Martinkus wrote "there was no one we could speak with about the other side of the story" because the local CNRT office had been destroyed. -
Near Ermera, May 1: Indonesian troops on patrol. The United Nations Mission in East Timor believed there were more than 15,000 members of the Indonesia military, known as TNI, in East Timor. -
Suai, August 21. A display supporting the referendum choice of autonomy (“My choice,” the sign says) within Indonesia during a visit by United States Senators Jack Reed and Tom Harkin, along with Representative Jim McGovern. After hearing from Timorese about militia violence, the US legislators said they would ask their government to send armed peacekeepers. -
Suai, July 22: More than 700 people fleeing the threat of militia violence sought refuge on the grounds of an unfinished cathedral. Even there they were not safe; militia and military massacred between 27 and 200 people including three priests on September 6. -
Dili, early August. A celebration after a flag-raising ceremony outside a new National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) office. Militia members laid waste to the office two weeks later. -
The overwhelming vote for independence triggered what the Chega! report called a military-coordinated scorched-earth campaign that forced hundreds of thousands to flee to the interior or to cross into Indonesian West Timor. The bulk of the territory's infrastructure was "razed to the ground", the Chega! report said. -
The Chega! report estimated at least 1,400 killings by militia and the Indonesian military in 1999, when the data spiked to a level “significantly greater” than any other year during the 24-year Indonesian occupation. Nevertheless, the odds are that this girl and this man survived to live in a free East Timor.
