After waging a twenty-four-year struggle for liberation, on May 20, 2002, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joined the international community as an independent nation.

From the mid-1970s until the 1990s, however, for many, the idea of East Timorese liberation seemed impossible. Following the 1975 invasion led by President Suharto, Indonesia had occupied and ruthlessly oppressed East Timor while Western countries provided arms and political cover. Western leaders feted and supported Suharto, while excusing and denying the death toll and propagating a false narrative regarding the origins and nature of the conflict.

The key to the Timorese people’s success was a multipronged campaign involving military resistance, an organized nonviolent civil resistance, and effective international diplomacy. An international solidarity movement supported the latter, working to counter pro-Suharto Western narratives and demonstrate the reality of the situation under Indonesian occupation.