Indonesia invaded East Timor or Timor-Leste , which had previously been a Portuguese colony , in 1975 . Following this , the Indonesian government encouraged repressive military policies to deal with ethnic protests and armed resistance in the area and encouraged settlement to the region by people from other parts of Indonesia . The violence between 1975 and 1993 had claimed between 120,000 and 200,000 people . The repression entered the international spotlight in 1991 when a protest in Dili was disrupted by Indonesian forces who killed over 250 people and disappeared hundreds of others . The Santa Cruz massacre , as the event became known , drew significant international attention to the issue ( highlighted with the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize being provided to Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo and resistance leader José Ramos-Horta ) . Following the international outcry , the Indonesian government began organizing a host of paramilitary groups in East Timor which continued harassing and killing pro-independence activists . At the same time , the Indonesian government significantly increased efforts at population resettlement to the area and destruction of infrastructure and the environment used by East Timorese communities . This eventually resulted in an international intervention force to be deployed for a vote by the population for independence of East Timor in 1999 . The vote was significant in favor of independence and the Indonesian forces withdrew , although paramilitaries continued carrying out reprisal attacks for a few years . A UN Report on the Indonesian occupation identified starvation , defoliant and napalm use , torture , rape , sexual slavery , disappearances , public executions , and extrajudicial killings as sanctioned by the Indonesian government and the entire colflict resulting in reducing the population to a third of its 1975 level
Santa Cruz massacre
Santa Cruz massacre
Genocide of indigenous peoples