Flag of East Timor

Flag of East Timor
(according to the flag of the Independence Ceremony with straight star)

National flag in Souro

The tones of the individual colours are not precisely defined in the Constitution. The Independence Day Celebrations Committee of the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) indicated light orange (PMS 123) as the correct shade of yellow, which is usually found on official flags. In flag illustrations in books or on the internet, but also in flags commonly used in East Timor, a light yellow is also widely used. According to the UNTAET source, the red corresponds to the tone PMS 485. Here, too, there are versions with a light red in East Timor. Even darker versions only appear as flag images, but not as flags. Although UNTAET gives the size of the black triangle as a quarter of the flag's length, the existing flags and illustrations all have a triangle with a size of one third.

There is disagreement about the correct proportions of the flag. While the 1975 flag always had the 2:3 ratio common in most of Europe, flags with a ratio of 1:2 also appeared in official use with the independence of East Timor. The reason for this is presumably that these flags are manufactured in Australia, where the proportions of 1:2 are customary. A clear uniform regulation was initially pending,[3] but Law 02/2007 on the national symbols shows a picture of a flag with a 1:2 ratio in the appendix.[3] Furthermore, the law lists in Article 4 the different formats of the flag in which the cloth flag should hang in public offices, barracks, private and state schools. Type 1 consists of a cloth 45 centimetres wide, Type 2 consists of a cloth 90 centimetres wide, Type 3 135 centimetres wide and so on up to Type 7 315 centimetres wide. However, in paragraph 2, the article explicitly allows smaller and larger flags, as well as those with sizes in between, as long as the proportions are respected.[3]

Flags are often seen with the top of the star pointing straight up. This was often the case with the 1975 flag. But today's constitution clearly states that the star should point with a tip to the upper left corner. This is also followed by the illustration in Law 02/2007.

The flag of East Timor used for the independence celebration on 20 May 2002 had a straight star despite the clear specifications.[4][5] It also had an aspect ratio of 1:2 and used the bright yellow in combination with the bright red.

• Variants of East Timor's flags
• 
  Variation with light yellow and dark red.
• 
  Historical variation with straight star and 2:3 aspect ratio
• 
  Flag of the independence
  ceremony of
  20 May 2002

Flag of the Portuguese Governor

Until independence from Portugal, the colony of Portuguese Timor used only the flag of Portugal. The Liurais, the traditional rulers of Timor, drew part of their claim to rule from sacred objects (lulik) owned by the ruling families. When the invaders subjugated the Liurais as vassals, they gave them Portuguese flags, which, along with the flagpoles, became sacred objects themselves, thus legitimising the rule of the Portuguese and the Liurais loyal to them. Especially in the culture of the Mambai, the flag cult took on a central significance. According to their myth of origin, the world order is created by two brothers. The elder brother, from whom the Timorese descend, holds the ritual power over the cosmos. The younger brother has the power over the social order. The non-Timorese peoples, in this case the Portuguese, are descended from this brother. The myth tells of the loss, search and recovery of a lost, sacred object, namely the Portuguese flag. This sacred meaning of the blue and white flag led to some problems when the flag of Portugal was changed in 1910 when the country changed from a monarchy to a republic.[6][7]

Reception for the Portuguese affected by the war in Timor on February 15, 1946

On 15 February 1946, the Angola arrived at the Portuguese naval base of Alcântara from Portuguese Timor. She brought home Portuguese who had lived in the colony during the Battle of Timor in the Second World War. A white flag with the Portuguese Timorese coat of arms on a green and red cross appears in the crowd.[8]

In 1961, a small, left-oriented Timorese resistance movement - the Bureau de Luta pela Libertação de Timor (BLLT) - used a flag that already had some elements of today's national flag. It consisted of a yellow-bordered black disc with a five-pointed white star on red cloth. Later, the BLLT established a short-lived government-in-exile in Jakarta called the United Republic of Timor, which used the same flag.

In 1967, there were proposals for separate flags for the individual Portuguese colonies, with the coat of arms of the colony added to the lower right of the flag of Portugal. However, the proposals were never implemented.[9]

Flag of East Timor in a 2:3 ratio as it was used in 1975

After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, parties were also allowed in Portuguese Timor. East Timor's dominant leftist party, the Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente (Fretilin) used the same colours as the BLLT in its party flag and also the white star on a black background. Apart from their political orientation, there are no links between the two organisations. To what extent the flag served as a model or simply common socialist symbols, such as the five-pointed star and the colour red, were used on the party flag is not clear. According to legend, the resistance fighter Natalino Leitão designed the current national flag based on the Fretilin flag the night before the proclamation of independence from Portugal on 28 November 1975. The incipient occupation of the country by Indonesia had put the Fretilin on the spot. Today, 28 November is East Timor's bank holidays, when official buildings are flagged. Only nine days after the declaration of independence, Indonesia openly started to invade East Timor. Natalino Leitão was killed in the process.

Che Guevara in the Timorese national colours in Baucau, East Timor

The declaration of independence was only recognised by a few countries. Politically, Indonesia was supported by the United States and Australia, as they feared a second Cuba due to the leftist orientation of Fretilin. The extent to which the red basic colour and the certain similarity of the flag design to Cuba's flag supported this assumption is debatable. That the flag of Cuba or the flag of Mozambique were models for Leitão's triangular design can only be assumed. At least there were and still are sympathies for Cuba and especially for Ernesto Che Guevara in East Timor. Fretilin already had close relations with Mozambique and its ruling party FRELIMO.

• Socialist chevron flags
• 
  Flag of FRELIMO
• 
  Flag of Mozambique
• 
  Flag of Cuba

Variant of the flag of the National Council of Maubere Resistance with the full name of the organisation

Beyond party political affiliation, the flag of the Fretilin became more and more a symbol of the organisation of resistance for the people during the occupation, and the national flag of 1975 a symbol of the people and their urge for independence. The occupation forces reacted to the use of the flags with severe repression. The use of flags other than the flag of Indonesia was forbidden.[2] Until 1999, East Timor was governed by Indonesia as a province, while internationally it was considered a "dependent territory under Portuguese administration". As an Indonesian province, it was also given a provincial flag, but this was only used in the governor's office, as was customary with all provincial flags. The flag of Timor Timur, as East Timor was officially called at the time, displayed the provincial coat of arms on an orange background.[10] When a Portuguese parliamentary delegation was due to visit East Timor in 1989, the Indonesian government distributed 30,000 Indonesian flags to be placed on the homes of Dili. This was intended to demonstrate the integration of East Timor into Indonesia.[2]

Variant of the flag of Falintil in the National Museum of the Resistance

The armed resistance against the Indonesians was led by Falintil, which was originally the military arm of Fretilin. In 1987, its leader Xanana Gusmão transformed Falintil into a national army of East Timorese resistance. He designed a new blue-white-green-black flag of the Falintil.[11] The Conselho Nacional de Resistência Timorense (CNRT), the umbrella organisation of East Timorese resistance founded in 1998, adopted the Falintil flag as a politically neutral symbol. They replaced the lettering "FALINTIL" with "CNRT" and changed the symbols in the shield. The Falintil used a yellow five-pointed star, two traditional swords (suriks) and three feathers. The CNRT used a spear and two arrows instead of the feathers, and the star was now white. The Falintil adopted this version of the coat of arms for its flag relatively soon. The shield in the flag of the CNRT is also found in slightly modified form with the same elements in the later first coat of arms of East Timor (2002-2006) after the restoration of independence. In the Falintil camps, it was strictly forbidden to walk through the shadow of the flag. Allegedly, this rule dates back to colonial times, when Timorese were beaten up if they walked through the shadow of the flag of Portugal.[12]

In the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor, the population could choose between full independence and remaining part of Indonesia as the Special Autonomous Region of East Timor (SARET). Article 20 of SARET's draft constitution provided for the possibility of adopting its own coat of arms, but not its own flag. Instead, the flag of Indonesia was to continue to be used.[13]

International Stabilization Force flag

When the United Nations took control in East Timor after the referendum, they used the United Nations flag. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, four East Timorese athletes participated as Independent Olympic Athletes under the flag of the Olympic Games, as East Timor was not yet independent and there was no National Olympic Committee.

The flag of East Timor was adopted in 2002. It is the same as the flag that was originally adopted when the country declared its independence from Portugal in 1975, nine days before being invaded by Indonesia.[14] At midnight on 19 May 2002, and during the first moments of Independence Day the next day, the United Nations flag was lowered and the flag of an independent East Timor was raised. The flag was officially reinstated on 20 May 2002, when the United Nations flag was taken down at midnight and the East Timorese flag was hoisted. According to the various local accounts, people were in tears for days and produced a special hand woven textile (Tais) in which to wrap the downed UN flag,[15] as if it was a death shroud, but also to protect it and to preserve its mystical ‘sacred’ power (luli).[16] This flag became a symbol of liberation and protection for the Timorese.[16]

After independence, every village in the country received a copy of the new national flag, which was handed over to them in a solemn ceremony. Consciously or unconsciously, this follows the Portuguese tradition of handing over the Portuguese flag to the vassals.[17]

During the celebrations of the seventh anniversary of independence on 20 May 2009, the national flag fell to the ground. Many Timorese saw this as a bad omen. At the flag-raising ceremony in 2002, the flag did not flutter in the wind and violent riots broke out a few months later. The opposition party Fretilin saw the renewed incident as a sign that the government was in trouble, and one of the country's biggest newspapers, the Timor Post, reported the event on its front page.[18]

Since 1 August 2011, the national flag has been placed in front of public institutions on the first Monday of every month. Likewise on 2 February (East Timor Defence Forces Day FDTL), 27 March (East Timor National Police Day PNTL) and 20 August (FALINTIL Day). The flag is always raised at 8 am, with employees and officials of the institution all present and singing the national anthem.[19]

In 2016, MPs Manuel Castro, Manuel Guterres, and Natalino dos Santos Nascimento criticised the fact that more people were writing on the flag, for example with signatures. In the view of the politicians, this is a "crime" against which the police should take action. The flag, which had been bought "with bones and blood", was thereby desecrated.[20]