| East Timor |
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The East Timorese independence referendum was a referendum which was held throughout East Timor on 30 August 1999. The referendum's origins lay with the request made by the President of Indonesia, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 27 January 1999, for the United Nations to hold a referendum, whereby the Indonesian province will be given choice of greater autonomy within Indonesia or independence.
In the preceding months, President Habibie had made various public statements whereby he mentioned that the costs of maintaining monetary subsidies to support the province were not balanced by any measurable benefit to Indonesia. Due to this unfavourable cost-benefit analysis, the most rational decision would be for the province, which was not part of original 1945 boundaries of Indonesia, to be given democratic choice on whether they want to remain within Indonesia or not. This choice was also in line with Habibie's general democratisation program in the immediate post-Suharto period.
As the follow-up step to Habibie's request, the United Nations organised meeting between Indonesian government and the Portuguese government (as the previous colonial authority over East Timor)[1]. On 5 May 1999, these talks resulted in the “Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Portuguese Republic on the Question of East Timor” which spell-out the details of the requested referendum. The referendum was to be held to determine whether East Timor would remain part of Indonesia, as a Special Autonomous Region, or separate from Indonesia. [2]. The referendum was organized and monitored by the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) and 450,000 people were registered to vote including 13,000 outside East Timor.
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The two options in the referendum were:
or
Of the 451,792 registered voters 94,388 (21.5%) voted to accept the proposed autonomy and 344,580 (78.5%) voted to reject the proposed autonomy, turnout was estimated to be 95%. [4]
The Indonesian government accepted the result on 19 October 1999 by repealing the laws that formally annexed East Timor to Indonesia. The United Nations passed a resolution establishing a transitional administration (UNTAET) in East Timor starting a transition process that would lead to independence in May 2002.
The agreement between the Indonesian and Portuguese governments included a “Constitutional Framework for a special autonomy for East Timor” as an annex. The framework would establish a “Special Autonomous Region of East Timor” (SARET) within the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia.
The following competencies would have been reserved for the Government of Indonesia:
The autonomous government would have had competence over all matters not reserved for the Government of Indonesia. The SARET would have the right to adopt a Coat of Arms as a symbol of identity. It would be able to designate persons as having "East Timorese Identity" and could limit rights of land ownership for persons without this identity. A traditional civil code could also have been adopted. The SARET could enter into agreements with city and regional governments for economic, cultural and educational purposes. The SARET would have been entitled to participate in cultural and sporting organisations where other non-state entities participate.
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