East Timor

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

The Democratic Republic of East Timor is a country in Southeast Asia. It is on the eastern side of the island of Timor, and also the smaller islands of Atauro and Jaco, and a small area, named Oecussi-Ambeno, inside the west side of Timor. That area is an exclave, which means it is separated from the main part of the country by part of another country. That other country is Indonesia.

The capital and largest city, Dili, is home to one hundred and fifty thousand people.

East Timor gets its name from the Malay word for "east", timur.

It is the poorest country in the world, with a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 400 US dollars per person.

For a long time, a European country called Portugal controlled the East Timor and called it The Colony of Portuguese Timor. In 1975, the Portuguese army left, and East Timor was invaded (taken over) by the Indonesian army in 1975. The invasion was very violent. The army stayed there until 1999, when they gave up control of the territory with the help of the United Nations.

At the time, the United States government said it did not know Indonesia was going to invade East Timor. But secret documents, released from 2002 to 2005, show that Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State of the United States, did know, and he told the President of Indonesia it was okay to invade.

When it got its independence on May 20, 2002, it became the first country to become independent in the twenty-first century (since the year 2000). In 2006, when Montenegro became independent, East Timor was no longer the newest one.

Since then, East Timor has not been given much attention in the news. Recently, the Colombian music artist Shakira made a song named "Timor", which talks about the country. The attention is because there has been fighting in East-Timor between gangs (groups of criminals with guns), security forces (small, personal armies), and the government. Australia, a large nearby country, sent troops in to make peace.

[edit] External links

• Asia Times article on the Timor Gap dispute
• CIA World Factbook information about East Timor
• ETAN Links - Extensive links on East Timor
• Governo Timor Leste - Official governmental site
• Bairo Pite Clinic website - Information on Health in East Timor
• Health Alliance International website - More information on health projects in East Timor by HAI
• Jornal Nacional - Semanário (in Portuguese)
• Links to Timor Leste government sites
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
• Suara Timor Lorosae - local newspaper in Tetum and Indonesian
• Tourism Timor-Leste - Official tourism website (English and Portuguese)
• (broken) Report from CNN - January 21, 2006

Countries and territories of Oceania

Australia : Australia · Coral Sea Islands · Norfolk Island

Melanesia : East Timor · Fiji · Maluku Islands & Western New Guinea (part of Indonesia) · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu

Micronesia : Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Northern Mariana Islands · Federated States of Micronesia · Nauru · Palau

Polynesia : American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Hawaii · New Zealand · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna

Countries and territories of Asia

Afghanistan | Armenia2 | Azerbaijan | Bahrain | Bangladesh | Bhutan | Brunei | Cambodia | China (PRC) | Cyprus2 | East Timor | Gaza Strip | Georgia2 | Hong Kong3 | India | Indonesia | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Japan | Jordan | Kazakhstan | Kuwait | Kyrgyzstan | Laos | Lebanon | Macau3 | Malaysia | Maldives | Mongolia | Myanmar | Nepal | North Korea | Oman | Pakistan | Philippines | Qatar | Russia1 | Saudi Arabia | Singapore | South Korea | Sri Lanka | Syria | Taiwan (ROC) | Tajikistan | Thailand | Turkey1 | Turkmenistan | United Arab Emirates | Uzbekistan | Vietnam | West Bank | Yemen

1. Includes territory in both Europe and Asia. 2. Usually thought of as Asia, but sometimes counted as part of Europe for cultural and historical reasons. 3. Special territories.