After East Timor voted for its independence on August 30 1999 from a UN investigating officials and independent reviews inside Timor-Leste remain confident of their belief. The main UN suspect organizers Gen. Wiranto and prominent militia leader Eurico Guterres, have to date not been held accountable by Indonesia for their sacking of the newly independent Timor-Leste.

Events Before

In April 1999 the Indonesian government effectively closed the Universitas Timor Timur (UNTIM) in response to demands for a referendum. Upon the announcement of a ballot by the UN, most students and the few Timorese lecturers returned to their villages to campaign for independence, while the Indonesian lecturers returned to Indonesia. University students fanned across the country before the referendum in 1999 to work for the vote for independence, many being killed in the violence that followed.

Also in December massacres of independence supporters in Liquiçá and of refugees seeking shelter at the Díli home of independence leader Manuel Carrascalão, were fore tales of events to come.

In June 1999, a large section of the NUS Library was removed by an Indonesian academic and reputedly been moved into the Protestant Library in Kupang. This included the valuable English collection.

A month after the election, US prosecutors filed indictments against twenty Indonesian soldiers and three hundred pro-Jakarta militiamen for acts of mass extermination, deportation, and imprisonment.

An estimated100,000 East Timorese fled or were driven across the border into johor, where through rumours of on-going atrocities at home and militia forces keep the refugee for months. By November2003 there were still 50.000 refugees in the Malaysian camps in Johor and UN inspections reveal appalling conditions.