EAST TIMOR (voa) – After more than four hundred years of colonial rule, twenty-five years of occupation and two years of rebuilding as a United Nations administered territory, East Timor became the world’s newest independent democratic nation on May 20, 2002.
Lawmakers in East Timor, the world’s newest nation, met for their inaugural session Monday and voted to apply for membership in the United Nations.
East Timor, a province of Indonesia for the past quarter-century and a Portuguese colony for 400 years before that, officially became independent early today after a two-and-a-half-year period of U.N. administration.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan saluted the courage of the East Timorese people at an independence ceremony in the capital, Dili.
Former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao, who was sworn in as the fledgling nation’s first president, called for reconciliation and new relations with Indonesia.
President Gusmao welcomed Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s presence at the ceremony. He said her trip to Dili was a symbol “of the democratic journey of the brotherly people of Indonesia.”
Members of East Timor’s Cabinet also were sworn in, and the legislature held its first session. Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri pledged to remain committed to the principles of strong and transparent government for the people.
Just hours after the new government was sworn in, East Timor and Australia signed a landmark treaty to tap lucrative offshore petroleum reserves that could be worth billions of dollars for the new, impoverished nation. The two sides agreed to divide royalties from gas and oil reserves in the Timor Sea, with 90 percent going to East Timor and 10 percent to Australia.
As East Timor marked its birth as a new nation, tens of thousands of East Timorese cheered and hugged each other in celebration. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony.
The former United States Mission was redesignated a U.S. Embassy after East Timor officially gained its independence.
East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a U.N. – sponsored referendum in 1999. Shortly afterwards, anti-independence militias supported by the Indonesian army went on a rampage that destroyed much of the island and killed hundreds of people.
East Timor has established a truth and reconciliation commission to reveal those crimes and seek justice.
