We liberated the country... ...now we liberate the people of East Timor
About CNRT
The History of CNRT
On 30th August 1999, the brave people of East Timor voted for the country’s independence in the face of severe intimidation and violence, signalling the great importance they placed on their national identity and freedom.
The long fight for independence by the brave and courageous resistance movement was supported and organised by the strong leadership of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT).
It was under the CNRT flag that the people of the clandestine resistance were organised and mobilised. It was the CNRT that helped the people to put and end to their suffering and make independence a reality.
CNRT maintained the motivation of the independence fighters, sustaining the courage and determination of the people after military defeats and decimation of the support base and general population towards the end of 1977 and 1978.
At the end of 1978, seeing the death of President Nicolau Lobato in combat on December 31st, Fretilin’s central committee and superior command was effectively destroyed, its members either killed or surrendered to the Indonesian occupying forces.
The war looked lost, with many members of Fretilin’s Central Committee that had fled overseas loosing their faith in the battle and loosing sight of victory.
For the remaining 21 years of the struggle from January 1979 to August 1999, the people of East Timor remained focused on independence with the help of the CNRT, resisting the social, physical and economic developments made by Indonesia to ingratiate them to its rule.
The Motivation for Resistance
The people of East Timor were determined to live their lives in peace, away from political persecution, away from fear for their lives and away from threats and routine human rights violations.
The people of East Timor wanted to build a country where they could live in harmony without the violence of war and combat.
The people’s dignity could not be bought with thousands of kilometres of roads built by the Indonesians.
The future prosperity and security of their children was worth more to the people of East Timor than the Schools built by Indonesia, they wanted to raise them in an environment of social companionship to ensure social tolerance and respect between all Timorese.
The promise of independence
Following the fateful ballot for independence in September 1999, every citizen of East Timor who had fought hard and dreamed so long for this moment had two important missions:
1) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and reconciliation commission was established to register and detail all the crimes and human rights violations that took place during the Indonesian occupation by Timorese against other Timorese, and by non-Timorese against the Timorese. The Commission’s aim was, is and always will be, to remind the people of East Timor that political violence, using fists, stones, Rama Ambon or guns, must never again happen in their beloved country as it only results in suffering for the people.
2) The Establishment of a Constitution for the Republic of East Timor
The States constitution was developed and outlines its fundamental objectives in article 6:
“To secure and promote the citizens fundamental rights and liberty.”
This means having the right to life, (which is nowadays violated arbitrarily), the right to a decent home, (when most of the population still lives without basic amenities) and the right to be informed, (the people live in a climate of lies and rumour).
“To defend and secure the political democracy.”
Just because there are many political parties, it does not mean that you have an effective democracy. Democracy requires political parties and their leaders to educate the population about tolerance, this can only happen when the leaders stop using the practices of threatening language, arrogance and confrontation.
“To defend and secure the people’s participation in the resolution of national problems.”
This states that the government must listen to its citizens, that it knows what the people think, what they want, what they expect from their leaders. This is to help the Government avoid making decisions, sometimes too personal or politicised, which might hurt the population’s conscience.
“To promote the edification of a society based on the social justice.”
This commits the Government to educate society on the right way to move forward. To combat corruption, conspiracy and nepotism which destroy society’s morality, and corrupt the population’s attitude towards a culture of servility, bribery and dependence.