Australia is still atoning for East Timor's suffering 10 years after the independence vote. No nation has paid a higher price for independence than East Timor.
The former Portuguese colony first declared independence in 1975, but that triggered an Indonesian invasion and annexation, condoned by the United States and Australia. In a brutal campaign of pacification over 24 years, as many as a third of the East Timorese population died.
Little more than a year after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, President B.J. Habibie surprisingly agreed to a United Nations-sponsored referendum and on August 30, 1999, the people voted overwhelmingly for independence.
Tomorrow East Timorese celebrate the 10th anniversary of a day of proud defiance but also of great sadness because so many of them did not live to see the dream of independence realised.
Even after the vote, in the weeks before Australian-led peacekeepers arrived in late September, Indonesian military-backed militias went on a rampage that killed as many as 1500 people and drove 300,000 refugees into West Timor. Most of the country's infrastructure was destroyed in a scorched-earth campaign.
As in 1975, Australia was wary of confronting Indonesia but the horrifying scenes out of Dili galvanised public opinion and the Government deployed troops to East Timor. The peacekeeping force ended the violence and kept the militias at bay, but the country had been ravaged.
East Timor formally became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002, but it has depended heavily on Australian security support and aid ever since. The country is the poorest in Asia, ranking 158th on the UN Human Development Index, and the rebuilding process has been painfully slow. Equally painful has been the price of good relations with Indonesia.
This week Amnesty International released a report calling on the UN Security Council to establish a criminal tribunal with jurisdiction over atrocities in East Timor since 1975. Only one person was in jail for the crimes committed in 1999, while those prosecuted in Indonesia had been acquitted in "fundamentally flawed" proceedings.
The report said the rule of law and hence stability had been undermined by East Timor's leaders, who put Dili's relationship with Jakarta ahead of justice for the victims.
A report to East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation found there were between 102,800 and 180,000 conflict-related deaths – out of a pre-invasion population of 628,000 – as a result of killings, starvation and illness. The establishment of the commission reflects, however, the decision of East Timor's leaders to follow the South African model of reconciliation for dealing with human rights abuses on an egregious scale.
President Jose Ramos Horta reportedly favours a general amnesty law if Indonesia acknowledges the abuses committed since 1975. The Government has been quite open about its assessment that stability and good relations with Indonesia remain the priority for a vulnerable nation with long-standing divisions.
In 2006 deadly fighting between security forces and disaffected troops required peacekeepers to return. Further violence occurred in the lead-up to the April 2007 presidential elections and Mr Ramos Horta was critically injured in an attack by rebel soldiers in February last year. Australia sent troop reinforcements to East Timor, where a 650-strong force remains in place.
Australia and East Timor are both struggling to deal with the legal and moral fallout from the bloody past. Only this month the remains of victims of 1991's Santa Cruz cemetery massacre, numbering up to 200, were identified for the first time.
Australia's official response was timid, but the atrocity marked a turning point in public support for the East Timorese. The movie Balibo, about the killing of six journalists during the 1975 invasion, is another topical reminder of Canberra's complicity in Indonesia's crimes, even when Australians were among the victims.
Australia has begun the process of atonement by restoring security and helping to rebuild East Timor. Democracy has taken root and the justice system will be strengthened by the creation of a commission to deal with a troubling number of corruption allegations.
Canberra has been less generous in relation to disputed oil and gas rights, although some concessions on sharing royalties have helped East Timor's Petroleum Fund accumulate about $5 billion. If used wisely, the fund could free the country's 1.15 million people from the hardship and insecurity of poverty. A sign of progress is that the UN is ready to wind down its 1600-strong mission and believes Australia can do the same. Earlier this year, however, the Government said Australian forces would stay as long as East Timor said it needed them. It is the least Australia can do.