Mário Lemos Pires

2: 3 ^? Governor's flag

Mário Lemos Pires (born June 30, 1930 in Lamego ; † May 22, 2009 in Lisbon ) was the last Portuguese governor of the Portuguese Timor colony , he was in office from November 14, 1974 to April 25, 1976. Most recently, he had the rank a major general.

Life

Pires fought in the Portuguese colonial wars in Angola (1961 to 1963) and Portuguese Guinea (1969 to 1971) under General António de Spínola . Pires was recognized for his achievements. Between 1972 and 1973 he received training at the US Army Staff Training College in Fort Leavenworth / Kansas . Later this brought him accusations of the left-wing FRETILIN that he was a fascist and agent of US imperialism. In his autobiography Pires rejects this and the later claim that he had handed East Timor over to the Indonesians .

Service in Portuguese Timor

Indonesian soldiers pose with a captured Portuguese flag in Batugade, East Timor, in November 1975

See also : End of Portuguese rule on Timor

After the Carnation Revolution , the new Portuguese government sent Colonel Pires as governor to prepare the colony for independence. He arrived in Timor on November 18, 1974 . One of his first orders concerned the legalization of political parties, some of which had already formed, in preparation for free elections to a constituent assembly. Pires was able to persuade the two largest parties FRETILIN and UDT to form a coalition. The APODETI refused to cooperate.

But when a majority for FRETILIN became apparent for the upcoming elections, the UDT attempted a coup on August 11, 1975 against the joint administration with FRETILIN. For Pires it came as a complete surprise. A brief civil war broke out between UDT and FRETILIN. On 26./27. August Pires evacuated all Portuguese administrative and military members with their families to the island of Atauro off the capital Dili , or to Darwin, Australia . The reason for this was a telegram from Lisbon warning of the risk of hostage-taking and advising people to flee to the safe island. From there, Pires tried unsuccessfully to mediate between the conflicting parties. He was urged by FRETILIN to return and go ahead with decolonization, but he insisted on waiting for instructions from Lisbon. Finally the FRETILIN prevailed in the fight. Only in October did the Portuguese corvette Afonso Cerqueira Atauro arrive and bring Pire's first support from the motherland.

On November 28, 1975 FRETILIN unilaterally proclaimed the independence of East Timor , as Indonesia had meanwhile started to occupy the border areas . FRETILIN hoped for international help through this step. Instead, Indonesia began invading the heartland of East Timor nine days later . The next day Pires left the colony with the rest of the Portuguese administration from Atauro with the help of the corvettes Afonso Cerqueira and João Roby . East Timor was occupied by Indonesia for 24 years. Neither the declaration of independence nor the annexation were recognized internationally. The country officially remained Portuguese territory until its final independence in 2002.

Publications

• Mário Lemos Pires: Descolonização de Timor: Missão imposível? , Lisbon, Publicações Dom Quixote, 1991.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Photo from 1965–1967
2. ↑ Timor Lorosae 2000 ( Memento of August 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (Portuguese)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Geoffrey C Gunn: History of Timor. (PDF; 824 kB).
4. ↑ Robert J. King, The Timor Gap 1972 - 2002 ( Memento from June 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 173 kB)
5. ^ History and Politics - Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University
6. ^ Frédéric Durand: Three centuries of violence and struggle in East Timor (1726-2008) , Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence

predecessor	Office	successor
Níveo Herdade	Governor of Portuguese Timor 1974–1976	President of East Timor