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UN PhotoTIMOR LESTE / REFERENDUM ANNIVERSARY ADVANCER
STORY: TIMOR LESTE / REFERENDUM ANNIVERSARY ADVANCER
TRT: 09:21
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / PORTUGUESE / NATS
DATELINE: 24-27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE / FILE
25 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
1. Various shots, aerial city views
24 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
2. Various shots, city views
27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
3. Wide shot, exterior Government Palace
4. Wide shot, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão talking to interviewer
5. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão, Prime Minister, Timor Leste:
“The United Nations flag above all inspired us. In terms of international law, the right of all peoples to self-determination and independence. This was a kind of United Nations presence in our fighting spirit.”
FILE – 27 SEPTEMBER 2002, NEW YORK CITY
6. Various shots, Xanana Gusmão with Secretary-General Kofi Annan during Timor Leste flag raising ceremony
27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
7. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão, Prime Minister, Timor Leste:
“At the doorstep of receiving sovereignty, the State, I came to the conclusion that we did everything to win the war, but we never thought about preparing for independence. So, it was difficult. The first five years were very difficult. It was even more difficult because there was no money and we were asking for alms here and alms there, until, little by little, from 2005 onwards, we started to receive some money from oil.”
FILE – 27 SEPTEMBER 2002, NEW YORK CITY
8. Various shots, Gusmão addressing the General Assembly
27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
9. Wide shot, Presidential Palace
26 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
10. Wide shot, Timor Leste President José Manuel Ramos-Horta talking to interviewer
11. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) José Manuel Ramos-Horta, President, Timor Leste:
“Timor was a success story, especially because the Security Council found consensus. There was consensus in the Security Council. Total. But there was consensus because Indonesia had already accepted, because if Indonesia had not accepted, and Indonesia was very important for some member countries of the Security Council, there would have been no consensus at the Security Council.”
FILE – 19 MARCH 2022, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
12. Med shot, Ramos-Horta voting in Presidential elections
26 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
13. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) José Manuel Ramos-Horta, President, Timor Leste:
“Let's do what we have to do: national reconciliation, because there are no angels and devils, there is a suffering people, there were the most varied crimes committed on both sides. There is an Indonesia in a complex, difficult transition to democracy. Let's not complicate the situation in Indonesia. And that's why the Indonesians admired Timor so much. We have never accepted a special court. We opted for national reconciliation and normalizing relations with Indonesia.”
27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
14. Wide shot, Ramos-Horta walking
15. Pan left, Ramos-Horta driving antique military vehicle
26 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
16. Pan right, Maria Domingas “Mikato” Fernandes Alves looking out from her balcony
17. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Maria Domingas “Mikato” Fernandes Alves, Politician, Timor Leste:
“Our house was burned down on the fourth day after the referendum, 4 September. We came back with nothing, no house or anything and we only came from Darwin to Dili when INTERFET entered here in Timor, on 22 September. But we had to take refuge in other people's homes because we did not have our own home. Everything was burned, all our things, the photographs. When they ask me about photographs, I don’t, I no longer have photographs of the fight, I have nothing.”
FILE - SEPTEMBER 1999, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
18.Various shots, burning homes
19. Various shots, post referendum violence
27 AUGUST 2024, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
20. Wide shot, exterior Education, Youth and Sport Ministry
21. Close up, sign reading “Ian Martin Hall”
22. Various shots, former UNAMET SRSG Ian Martin walking around building
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“Yes, this was my office, but it’s got better furniture now. There was a blue couch which is where I slept on.”
24. Med shot, Martin telling a story
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“There had been massacres even before we arrived. An international presence certainly had some effect in calming the situation and not just us, there was a lot of attention that grew from the international media. International election observers came in. So that was a positive factor, but it never completely stopped the intimidation of the population or incidents where our own offices were attacked on a couple of occasions”.
26. Wide shot, Martin talking to interviewer
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“After a lot of discussion, the Secretary-General decided we should go ahead to open registration, saying this was despite the fact that security wasn't adequate and saying there would be a review halfway through registration as to whether we should continue. And that was really the point in which the courage and the determination of the Timorese made itself felt, because despite the fact that some had been displaced and were hiding in the hills, people came to register, and it was quite soon apparent that we were going to get we were even going to exceed the numbers of voters that the electoral experts had estimated”.
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“Some of the people who had been displaced from their homes had taken refuge in the school, just over that wall there.”
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“Began climbing over the wall, which unfortunately had barbed wire on top. I mean, there were families literally throwing babies over the wall and UNAMET police and other staff sort of catching them and helping them.”
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor and Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET):
“People had to begin to tell them that we might be leaving. And that was the point at which staff said, you know, we can't leave them, we must stay. And I said, well, you know, get up a list of volunteers. And then I was at the Indonesian military headquarters sort of negotiating over the next stage of the evacuation.”
31. Med shot, Martin talking to interviewer
15 AUGUST 2024, NEW YORK CITY
32. Wide shot, Strategic Communications Chief Nick Birnback talking to interviewer
33. SOUNDBITE (English) Nick Birnback, Chief, Strategic Communications, Department of Peace Operations (DPO), United Nations:
“It was hugely risky for everybody. What was the most remarkable part about it was the attitude, I think, of the of the average Timorese who were just determined to make sure that this popular consultation took place no matter what was going on, no matter what was happening, no matter what threats they were under, no matter what they were determined to make sure that the popular consultation took place.”
34. Wide shot, Birnback talking to interviewer
35. SOUNDBITE (English) Nick Birnback, Chief, Strategic Communications, Department of Peace Operations (DPO), United Nations:
“We went and got to the polling station early because we wanted to see it before it opened. And as the sun came up, there were huge lines of people already waiting as the sun came up because they didn't want to miss their opportunity to vote. I'll never forget that the sun coming up and seeing all these the people waiting to vote.”
30 AUGUST 1999, DILI, TIMOR LESTE
36. Various shots, people voting in the referendum
Ahead of Secretary-General António Guterres visit to Timor Leste to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the referendum that led to the country’s independence, Timorese and UN officials recall the violent events and eventual success of the popular vote.
30 August 1999 was the day when the Timorese population had a long-waited opportunity to exercise its self-determination. In a referendum organized by the United Nations Mission in East Timor, UNAMET, they could choose integration to Indonesia, in the form of a special autonomy proposal, or Independence.
Prime Minister and former leader of the resistance Xanana Gusmão said, “the United Nations flag above all inspired us. In terms of international law, the right of all peoples to self-determination and independence. This was a kind of United Nations presence in our fighting spirit.”
Gusmão, who has served both as Prime Minister and President of the country, spoke of the difficulties faced after independence.
He said, “at the doorstep of receiving sovereignty, the State, I came to the conclusion that we did everything to win the war, but we never thought about preparing for independence. So, it was difficult. The first five years were very difficult. It was even more difficult because there was no money and we were asking for alms here and alms there, until, little by little, from 2005 onwards, we started to receive some money from oil.”
Despite intimidation, violence and attacks against pro-independence Timorese and UNAMET staff, 98,6 percent of all those registered casted their ballots in 200 hundred polling centres across the country.
President José Manuel Ramos-Horta, who during the days of the resistance had been the leader in exile, said, “Timor was a success story, especially because the Security Council found consensus. There was consensus in the Security Council. Total. But there was consensus because Indonesia had already accepted, because if Indonesia had not accepted, and Indonesia was very important for some member countries of the Security Council, there would have been no consensus at the Security Council.”
Ramos-Horta highlighted the importance of national reconciliation in moving the country forward. He said, “there are no angels and devils, there is a suffering people, there were the most varied crimes committed on both sides.”
He said, “that's why the Indonesians admired Timor so much. We have never accepted a special court. We opted for national reconciliation and normalizing relations with Indonesia.”
A former rebel, Maria Domingas “Mikato” Fernandes Alves recalled the violence that followed the announcement of the referendum results.
Mikato said, “our house was burned down on the fourth day after the referendum, 4 September. We came back with nothing, no house or anything and we only came from Darwin to Dili when INTERFET entered here in Timor, on 22 September. But we had to take refuge in other people's homes because we did not have our own home. Everything was burned, all our things, the photographs. When they ask me about photographs, I don’t, I no longer have photographs of the fight, I have nothing.”
The result was announced by the Head of UNAMET, Ian Martin, on 4 September 1999, and indicated that 78.5 percent of the votes, or 344,580, rejected the proposed special autonomy and 94,388, or 21.5 percent, voted to accept it.
Visiting the site of the former UNAMET Headquarters, Martin said, “an international presence certainly had some effect in calming the situation and not just us, there was a lot of attention that grew from the international media. International election observers came in. So that was a positive factor, but it never completely stopped the intimidation of the population or incidents where our own offices were attacked on a couple of occasions”.
He recalled that Secretary-General Kofi Annan “decided we should go ahead to open registration, saying this was despite the fact that security wasn't adequate and saying there would be a review halfway through registration as to whether we should continue.”
UNAMET team worked from dawn to dusk to register 433,576 voters in Timor-Leste in only 22 days. Additional voters in 13 international sites led the total to 446,666 people.
Martin said, “despite the fact that some had been displaced and were hiding in the hills, people came to register, and it was quite soon apparent that we were going to get we were even going to exceed the numbers of voters that the electoral experts had estimated”.
The security situation in Timor-Leste deteriorated rapidly after the ballot. The UNAMET compound became home to 1,500 – 2,000 internally displaced Timorese as well as hundreds of local and international staff.
The former SRSG said, “some of the people who had been displaced from their homes had taken refuge in the school, just over that wall there,” and noted that people “began climbing over the wall, which unfortunately had barbed wire on top. I mean, there were families literally throwing babies over the wall and UNAMET police and other staff sort of catching them and helping them.”
He said, “people had to begin to tell them that we might be leaving. And that was the point at which staff said, you know, we can't leave them, we must stay. And I said, well, you know, get up a list of volunteers. And then I was at the Indonesian military headquarters sort of negotiating over the next stage of the evacuation.”
The Strategic Communications Chief at the Department of Peace Operations (DPO), Nick Birnback was also part of the Mission staff.
Birnback recalls, “it was hugely risky for everybody. What was the most remarkable part about it was the attitude, I think, of the of the average Timorese who were just determined to make sure that this popular consultation took place no matter what was going on, no matter what was happening, no matter what threats they were under, no matter what they were determined to make sure that the popular consultation took place.”
He said, “we went and got to the polling station early because we wanted to see it before it opened. And as the sun came up, there were huge lines of people already waiting as the sun came up because they didn't want to miss their opportunity to vote. I'll never forget that the sun coming up and seeing all these the people waiting to vote.”
In total, Fourteen UN staff were killed or disappeared in the crisis. On 20 September the International Force East Timor (INTERFET), a multinational force mandated by the Security Council resolution 1264, was deployed and stabilized the situation in the following weeks.
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