East Timor

Map of East Timor

Welcome to the Yale East Timor Project, since 2000 a component of the Genocide Studies Program.

Indonesia’s military dictatorship invaded the small territory of East Timor (then Portuguese Timor) in December 1975. Up to a fifth of the East Timorese population perished during Indonesia’s 24-year occupation (1975-1999), a similar proportion to the Cambodians who died under the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot (1975-1979). As Indonesian forces finally left the territory in 1999, they massacred over a thousand civilians and burned down eighty percent of the buildings in the country.

In the left sidebar you will find research products of the Yale East Timor Project.

UN-sponsored Truth Commission Verdict on East Timor: “Extermination as a Crime Against Humanity”

Full Report of the Truth Commission                    

US Role                     

East Timor Leaders, 1974