Today
After August 1999, 78% of the population voted for independance from Indonesia, East Timor collapsed into chaos as pro-Indonesian militia groups went on a rampage of murder, arson, and general destruction. Australian peace keeping forces, in their largest military deployment since WWII, are involved in peace keeping operations there. The roots of this violence go back to at least 1975, when the province achieved independence after four centuries of Portuguese colonization to be consequntly annected by the neighboring Indonesia. A new country, independent of Indonesia was created on 20 May 2002.

History
Australian Occupation
Before WWII, East Timor was a Poruguese colony. Australian commandoes, numbering around 400 soldiers landed in Timor in anticipation of an eminent Japanese invasion via Timor. But the landing prompted the Japanese to occupy the island, and the Timorese, especially the East Timorese, were caught in between. Especially intriguing are the differences in the attitudes between the East and the West Timorese people towards Australian soldiers, or the "white men." The West Timorese were more hostile to the Australian soldiers where as the East Timorese proved to be in extreme opposition to their western counterpart.

Japanese Occupation
During the Second World War, Portugal declared a policy of neutrality. Dutch and Australian troops nonetheless disembarked at East Timor in disrespect of Portuguese sovereignty. But the real menace came with the Japanese invasion, three months later, in February of 1942. The island became a stage of war between Japanese and the allieds. In spite of Portugal's policy of neutrality, the Australian and Dutch troops entered in Timor. It was the first of two foreigner military invasions. In Lisbon, Oliveira de Salazar denounced the allied disembark as an invasion of a neutral territory. Shortly after arrived the Japanese. It's not to admire that J. Santos Carvalho saw in these actions an attitude of depreciation towards the sovereignty of Portugal.

Creados Assisiting the Australians
The East Timorese ultimately chose to help the Australians after learning that the Australians were much friendlier. Many East Timorese also volunteered for the war helping the Australian troops to combat the Japanese. The volunteers, called "creados," helped the Australian soldiers by carrying their ammunitions and spare back packs, and cooked for them. They were the personal assistant of these soldiers, their serfs. Others were used as trackers and informers. The East Timorese helped the Australians and stuck by them to the bitter end, even well after the Australians retreated from the island. All possible contacts with East Timorese were lost. The only contact the East Timorese had with the Australians were the "I owe you" leaflets dropped from high flying Australian war planes. The Japanese retaliated. People found collaborating with the Australians were tortured, then shot, beheaded or burned. Sometimes, a whole population was massacred, leaving only the life stock for the Japanese soldiers to loot and young women were taken by the Japanese soldiers to be used as sex slaves. More than 45,000 East Timorese were dead. Most died for assisting the 400 Australian soldiers. The island surrendered on September 11, 1945.