[ jun 2005 ]
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"Welcome to East Timor, South-East Asia's newest nation. Independence has brought mixed fortunes to this recovering war zone, and it remains a country in transition. But it has fine beaches, colonial towns, rugged mountains and a lush interior, with Dili a taste of Portugal in the tropics.
"East Timor is a brand new destination, a place where you can still be a pioneer. Apart from that fine feeling of being first on the scene, visitors can also enjoy the country's Portuguese colonial flavour and the pristine underwater scenery without worrying about crowds. "
lonelyplanet.com'burma campaign' call to boycott 'lonely planet' here
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"East Timor, half of an island 300 miles north of Australia, was colonised by Portugal 450 years ago. In 1974, the old Salazarist order in Lisbon was swept aside by the 'Carnation Revolution' and Europe's last great empire began to disintegrate virtually overnight.
"With the Portuguese preoccupied by events at home, the Indonesian military dictatorship of General Suharto invaded East Timor in december 1975, and illegally and brutally occupied it ( until 2002 ). The result: some 200,000 Timorese dead, or a third of the population.
"On December 5, 1975, Henry Kissinger and President Gerald Ford arrived in Jakarta on a visit a State Department official described to reporters as 'the big wink.' Two days later, as Air Force One climbed out of Indonesian airspace, the bloodbath in East Timor began. "
johnpilger.com