A crowd gathered around an unidentified Falintil leader talking on a satellite telephone ...

A crowd gathered around an unidentified Falintil leader talking on a satellite telephone connected to a car battery in a Falintil camp. Falintil was originally formed as the military wing of the Fretelin political party and both played a major part in the pro-Independence movement surrounding the referendum, held on 30 August 1999, to allow the East Timorese to choose between autonomy within Indonesia or independence. Following the overwhelming vote for independence, the pro-Indonesian militia launched a campaign of destruction, arson and murder, killing approximately 1500 people and forcing 300,000 others into West Timor as refugees.