This week, Timor-Leste celebrates 20 years of independence. On 20 May 2002, the United Nations formally handed power to the new Timorese government and, thus, to its people.
It ended a struggle often described as spanning the 24 years from the Indonesian invasion in 1975 to the UN referendum in 1999. But before Indonesia’s bloody and brutal occupation, there had been four centuries of colonial Portuguese rule.
