Timor-Leste: Not Just an Ordinary New Year
![Flag in Timor-Leste, 2012 [U.S. Embassy photo/ Public Domain]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130226035312im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0101_timorleste_flag_m.jpg)
When the people of Timor-Leste woke up this morning, their young nation had opened a new chapter in its history. Today is the first day since 1999 that there is no UN Security Council-mandated mission on the ground.
From the passage of UNSC Resolution 384 on December 22, 1975 to 1999, Timor-Leste remained on the Council's agenda as unfinished post-colonial business. In 1999, the Security Council supported the UN-administered popular consultation in which Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence instead of continued incorporation in Indonesia; it then sadly directed the dispatch of peacekeepers as a result of post-referendum violence. A series of peacekeeping and special political missions ensued. In 2011, the final peacekeeping mission -- the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) -- and the government established a joint transition plan to… more »
Posted under: East Asia and the Pacific
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