Great Timor

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With Great Timor ( Indonesian Timor Raya , English Great Timor ) is a unified, completely from Indonesia independent island Timor referred. So far, the island in the independent State of East Timor and the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara belonging West Timor shared.

background

Timor Island

Before it was taken over by the two European colonial powers Portugal and the Netherlands , Timor was divided into many small kingdoms, which were divided into the three major spheres of power Sonba'i ( Portuguese Servião , Dutch Zerviaen or Sorbian ) in the west, Wehale in the center and the area in the east. which the Portuguese later included in the province of Belu (also: Belos or Behale ). In addition, there were connections between the individual kingdoms, which is why the entire island was connected to one another in a network. The spiritual center was laran in the realm of Wehale.

After the Portuguese attempt to drive the Dutch out of their previously small Timorese sphere of influence to drive Kupang in 1749 in the Battle of Penfui in a disaster, a large part of the Liurai (Timorese minor kings) of West Timors concluded treaties with the Dutch East India Company in 1756 . Including a certain Jacinto Correa , King of Wewiku- Wehale and Grand Duke of Belu , who also signed the dubious Treaty of Paravicini on behalf of many areas in central Timor . However, Wehale was no longer powerful enough to pull all of his vassals over to the side of the Dutch. The eastern former vassals of Wehales remained under the flag of Portugal, while Wehale itself fell under Dutch rule. The final demarcation between the colonial powers was not determined until 1916. It largely corresponds to today's limit. During the Japanese occupation of Timor there were efforts of the Japanese to unite the two island halves, for which the agent Tōru Maeda contacts between Joaquim da Costa Guterres , the ruler of Ossu (East Timor) and the communities of Nai-Buti from Atambua organized (West Timor). However, this collaboration did not have any concrete consequences.

The Dutch part of Timor became independent as part of Indonesia in 1949, while the East remained a colony as Portuguese Timor until 1975. On November 28, 1975 the FRETILIN declared the independence of East Timor, but only nine days later Indonesia occupied the half of the island and made it its 27th province in 1976. Neither the declaration of independence nor annexation were recognized internationally. A guerrilla war ensued, directly and indirectly killing almost a quarter of the population of East Timor. After the independence referendum in East Timor in 1999 , in which the majority of the population spoke out in favor of a complete separation from Indonesia, Operation Donner led to a final wave of violence in which pro-Indonesian militias and the Indonesian military raged. The United Nations took control and finally released the country into independence in 2002.

Despite the colonial and national separation, the links from Wehale's time remained across the borders. The traditional ties of the ethnic groups that live on both sides of the border ( Tetum , Bunak and Kemak ) continued to exist until after the colonial era. For example, the family of the former rulers of the Atsabe- Kemak were very interested in unifying their old sphere of influence. One reason why Guilherme Gonçalves , the last coronel messenger of Atsabe-Kemak in 1975, was one of the founders of the APODETI party , which advocated an affiliation of Portuguese Timor to Indonesia. Only later did he distance himself from the Indonesian regime.

There are suspicions that El Tari , the Indonesian governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur, was poisoned in 1978 because he was pursuing plans for a united Greater Timor independent of Indonesia.

Situation after East Timor's independence from Indonesia

As early as 2001, members of the Indonesian military warned that the independence of East Timor could lead to secession movements in West Timor. In the administrative district of North Central Timor ( Timor Tengah Utara ) near Atambua , East Timorese separatists have received local support, including from the Catholic diocese of Atambua . In 2005 a local commission warned again of a "Greater Timor group" in West Timor.

Such a group did not appear publicly on a large scale at this time, especially since neither the East Timorese government nor any of the major parties there supported this idea, but clearly supported West Timor's affiliation with Indonesia and relied more on good neighborly contacts. Manuel Tilman from Klibur Oan Timor Asuwain (KOTA) has only been declaring the unification of the island parts as his project since 2011 , even if not at this point in time. With this goal he stands alone in East Timorese politics for a long time. His party received less than one percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections in East Timor in 2012 .

Despite the traditional connections, the residents on both sides of the border do not show any ambitions for unification, although a large number of refugees from East Timor still live in the western part. One of the reasons for this are the ethnic groups at the respective tips of the island, which traditionally are less fond of the Greater Timor idea . In the west, the majority of the population is made up of the Atoin Meto ethnic group , which in East Timor is only represented in the Oe-Cusse Ambeno exclave and was otherwise in competition with Wehale and the Tetum, which is dominant in the east. East Timor itself was at times shaken by internal conflicts along the old border between Wehale and Belu. In the state capital Dili there were regular bloody street fights between youth gangs , whose members come from the two parts of the country Loro Sae (east) and Loro Munu (western East Timor) until 2008 . The climax was the unrest in East Timor in 2006 .

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maeda, Tooru: Chimoru-Ki, pp. 125-163, Soudosha (Japan) 1982.
  2. ↑ VISÃO: O último fantasma de Timor , October 25, 2001 .
  3. ↑ Jakarta Post (ETAN), December 18, 2001, TNI Warns of W. Timor Rebels
  4. ↑ Jakarta Post (ETAN), February 26, 2005, Officials wary of Great Timor State
  5. ↑ Dennis Shoesmith: Political Parties and Groupings of Timor-Leste , Australian Labor International, October 2011, 3rd edition ( Memento of May 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Coordinates: 9 ° 14 ′  S , 124 ° 56 ′  E