Ruth Nuttall - Political Continuity and Conflict in East Timor: A History of the 2006 Crisis

Political Continuity and Conflict in East Timor

This book examines the history of political continuity and conflict in East Timor between 1974 and 2006, and the origins of an unexpected crisis in 2006 which caused an international military intervention and several more years of UN missions. Providing a fresh and analytical political history to explain the crisis, the book offers new dimensions to the understanding of East Timor, its independence struggles, political transition and politics after independence in 2002. The author revisits historical materials and brings to light new resources, making extensive use of the 2005 Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and contemporary diplomatic, UN and news media reports, to provide a precise context and chronology for the events in 2006. The book provides an analysis within which factors such as ethnic and inter-communal violence, security sector weaknesses and conflict between the army and police, the constitution and legal system, state-building and peace-building can be located in the larger context of the 2006 crisis. Demonstrating how and why, in the space of four weeks in April and May 2006, the newly independent country of Timor-Leste plunged from UN success story into catastrophe, this book will be of interest to academics working on Southeast Asian Politics, Southeast Asian history, Development Studies and Nation-, State- and Peace-Building and International Relations.

Ruth Nuttall is currently a Campus Visitor at The Australian National University, Canberra. From 1980 to 2012, she had a professional career in the New Zealand diplomatic service and served as New Zealands first Ambassador to Timor-Leste (20052008).

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Political Continuity and Conflict in East Timor

A History of the 2006 Crisis

Ruth Nuttall

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Political Continuity and Conflict in East Timor

A History of the 2006 Crisis

Ruth Nuttall

First published 2021

by Routledge

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2021 Ruth Nuttall

The right of Ruth Nuttall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-64778-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-67487-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-13150-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

For Wayne Farmer, and all who were there in 2006.

Timor Tanis (Timor Weeps), Zeny, 2007. (Photograph by George Serras.)

Contents

I am grateful to all those friends, contacts and colleagues who have contributed to my understanding of the politics of East Timor. Special mention is also due to John McLeod and Athol Soper for their unwavering support in Dili, 20062008. I also owe particular thanks to Professor Robert Cribb, at The Australian National University, for encouraging me to publish this work.

My thanks also go to ANU CartoGIS for permission to use maps prepared under my direction; to UNSW Canberra, Australian Defence Force Academy, for permission to use the photographs by Michael Richardson; and to George Serras for the photograph of the painting by Zeny. I thank the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for allowing me access to its files. I am also indebted to ETAN, CHART Timor Archives, Lao Hamutuk and the Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) for their online archives, as well as to the National Library of Australia for its collection of Timor Post newspapers.