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Revision as of 17:02, 11 June 2006
For other uses, see Timor (disambiguation).
Timor is an island at the south end of the Malay Archipelago, divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara with the surface of 11,883 sq mi (30,777 km²). The name is a variant of timur, Malay for "east"; it is so called because it is at the east end of a chain of islands.
Geography
To the south and southeast of Timor is the country of Australia. To its northwest is the island of Sulawesi, and to its west, the island of Sumba. To the west-northwest of Timor are the islands of Flores and Alor, and to its northeast are the Barat Daya Islands, including Wetar.
Timor, together with the Lesser Sunda Islands to the northwest and the smaller islands to the northeast, is covered by tropical dry broadleaf forests. Many trees are deciduous or partly deciduous, dropping their leaves during the dry season. Timor, the Barat Daya Islands, and the smaller islands to the northeast of Timor constitute the Timor and Wetar deciduous forests ecoregion.
History
The island has been politically divided in two parts for centuries: West Timor, which was known as Dutch Timor from the 1800s until 1949 when it became Indonesian Timor, a part of the nation of Indonesia which was formed from the old Netherlands East Indies; and East Timor which was known as Portuguese Timor from 1596 until 1975. It includes the enclave of Oecussi-Ambeno in West Timor. The Netherlands and Portugal did not formally resolve the matter of the boundary until 1912.
Japanese forces occupied the whole island from 1942 to 1945. They were resisted in a guerrilla campaign led initially by Australian commandos. (See Battle of Timor.)
Following an Indonesian invasion in 1975, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and was known as Timor Timur or 'Tim-Tim' for short. It was regarded by Indonesia as the country's 27th province, but this was never recognised by the United Nations or Portugal. The people of East Timor resisted Indonesian forces in a prolonged guerilla campaign. (See: Indonesian rule in East Timor). Following a referendum held in 1999, under a UN sponsored agreement between Indonesia and Portugal, in which its people rejected the offer of autonomy within Indonesia, East Timor achieved independence in 2002 and is now officially known as Timor-Leste.
One of the greatest fears of the Indonesian Government concerning East Timor has always been the possibility of the western part of the island being encouraged, after the eastern part's independence, to attempt to join the latter in a fully independent island-nation. Indonesian intelligence confirmed the arousal of a Timor Raya (Great Timor) movement, active since 2001, in the island's western side.
Trivia
- According to local mythology, the island of Timor was a giant crocodile.
- The Atoni people live on Timor.
- Timor is also the name of a track of Shakira's latest album Oral Fixation 2. It speaks of the violence in Timor and a perceived dearth of coverage in the West.
- The Whitlams song Four Hundred Miles from Darwin is also a reference to violence in Timor.