East Timor

The small country 5,794 square miles (15,007 square kilometers) now known as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, or more commonly as East Timor, has been alternately occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Japanese. The most repressive occupation, however, occurred in the 20th century when the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia supported Indonesia's brutal military occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999. Estimates of lives lost during this occupation vary from 100,000 to 250,000. Following the 1999 bid for independence, Indonesia retaliated by launching a military backlash and a scorched-earth policy. Around 1,300 Timorese were subsequently killed and 300,000 were forced to seek refuge in West Timor.

Part of the Malay Archipelago, East Timor is a set of islands located in southeastern Asia ...