Dili, Tim Johnson – Timorese Tuesday celebrated East Timor's first free anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of the former Portuguese colony on December 7, 1975.

Veteran independence campaigner Jose Ramos-Horta told Kyodo News his people's hearts are filled with sorrow for the many who died during the initial assault on Dili.

"But it's also a great day of joy for the people of East Timor because it's the first time after 24 years that on this day the people are free," he said after attending a church service with Bishop Carlos Belo, with whom he shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

Ramos-Horta, Falintil guerrilla force field commander Taur Matan Ruak and other resistance figures later took part in a colorful procession of vehicles down Dili's main thoroughfare, attracting small crowds each time it stopped to replace street signs along the way.

"The Indonesians had named this long avenue after Suharto's wife," Ramos-Horta said, referring to the former Indonesian president who ordered the invasion. "Today, for the first time in 24 years in a free Timor, we rename it to honor the martyrs of this country," he said. The avenue was renamed Rue Dos Martires da Patria (Avenue of the Martyrs of the Motherland).

Operasi Seroja – a full-scale land-sea-air attack on Dili involving some 10,000 Indonesian troops – was launched at 2am on December 7, 1975, less than 24 hours after then US President Gerald Ford and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Jakarta.

During the attack, Dili residents were subjected to what historian John Taylor has described as "systematic killing, gratuitous violence and primitive plunder."

The only foreign journalist to witness the invasion, Australian Robert East, was shot through the head with his hands tied behind his back, and his body thrown into the sea.

But the Indonesian attempt to take control of the territory proved costly and time-consuming as it was met with fierce resistance from Falintil forces.

Badly outnumbered and outgunned, the Falintil fighters were eventually forced into the mountainous interior, where they waged guerrilla warfare for 24 years.

Indonesia's annexation of the territory in 1976 was never recognized by the United Nations, which on August 30 held a referendum in which the East Timorese people voted overwhelmingly to separate from Indonesia.