TIMOR-LESTE BORDER TRADE MARKET AND FAMILIY VISIT CONTROL

TIMOR-LESTE BORDER TRADE MARKET AND FAMILIY VISIT CONTROL.

Lucio Franculino Barros Lic,CSH.,MA

Introduction

Timor-Leste is a newly independent country in Southeast Asia, located in the eastern part of Timor, an island in the Indonesian archipelago that lies between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. East Timor includes the enclave of Oecussi, which is located within West Timor (Indonesia). Timor island lies about 300 miles North West of Darwin, Australia (Smythe, 2004). Timor was first colonized by the Portuguese in 1520. The Dutch, who claimed many of the surrounding islands, took control of the western portion of the island in 1613. Portugal and the Netherlands fought over the island until an 1860 treaty divided Timor, granting Portugal the eastern half of the island as well as the western enclave of Oecussi, (Wallenfeldt, 2019).

Portuguese remained its colonial power over east Timor for 455 year. However, the emergence of a regime change in early 1974 in Portugal, led the new government in Portugal committed to capitalist modernization and off-loading colonial responsibilities. De-colonization process was soon initiated in east Timor and several political groupings emerged and proposing various options to the people.  FRETLIN as being more expressive of radical nature of its purposes unilaterally declared East Timor as a Democratic Republic on 28^th November 1975. The very next day, Indonesia invaded and annexed, (Smythe, 2004). Australia officially recognized the annexation; Indonesia's invasion was sanctioned by the United States and other western countries, who had cultivated Indonesia as a trading partner and cold-war ally, (Wallenfeldt, 2019).

However, after 24 year of resisting Indonesian occupation, in 1999 with international support, a referendum was held to decide whether to remain an autonomous province of Indonesia or become an independent nation. With an overwhelming 78.5 percent Timorese people voted for independence. The result saw a violent backlash from the Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militia. About 600 000 East Timorese sought safety in the mountains, while 230 000 pro-Indonesian fled or were forced into neighboring West Timor (MC, 2019). The Joint Border Committee was created by East Timor and Indonesia to begin negotiations about border demarcation. The progress has been slow for the last few years, the main dispute concerns the question of whether or not the new border should be defined by a Dutch-Portuguese treaty made in 1904 and which had remained in force until 1974, (Gutteling, 2019).

ABSTRACT

The land border between Indonesia and Timor Leste has always become an issue for both countries to settle the demarcation problem. The East Timorese government wishes to retain the former boundaries, while the Indonesian leadership argues that local customary settlement (adat) has shifted the border and that new border arrangements should take it into consideration. To date 97 per cent of the land border has been demarcated, with the remaining 3 per cent to be decided in the first few months of 2009, (Gutteling, 2019). Indonesia and Timor Leste sign an agreement to complete borderline issues between two countries. As Asia’s youngest nation, Timor Leste seeks to consolidate its sovereignty after gaining its independence. The agreement is the basis for determining maritime boundary deal between the two countries, (Matrona, 2019).

Efforts have been made by both Indonesian and Timorese authorities to manage the border. The East Timorese Border Patrol Unit (BPU), which forms part of the East Timorese police force, became solely responsible for East Timor side of the border. In West Timor the border was defended by a battalion of the Indonesian army. Their task was perhaps more difficult than that of their counterparts since most incursions across the border would come from the Indonesian side. Although smuggled goods travel in both directions across the border, significantly more goods come from Indonesia and move into East Timor where they are sold for a larger profit. Petrol bought in Indonesia, for example, can be sold over the border in East Timor for a 30 per cent profit, (Gutteling, 2019). The illegal trade activities and movement of people in the border vicinity were unlikely to halt people from both sides of the border that had long histories of culture integration associated with shared language which form an important part of trade and family relation.

Key word: Border market, family visit.