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> Timeline: Unrest in East Timor. 25/05/2006. ABC News Online
> [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1646987.htm]
> Last Update: Thursday, May 25, 2006. 7:19pm (AEST)

> May 24, 2006: East Timor asks for international help to quell violence in Dili. (Reuters) |

> # Timeline: Unrest in East Timor

> Here are some of the key dates in East Timor's history.

> ## 2006

> May 25: First wave of Australian troops arrive in Dili.

> May 25: The UN opens a refugee camp near Dili for those fleeing the violence.

> May 24: East Timor requests assistance from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal to quell the unrest. Australia says it will send up to 1,300 troops. Portugal agrees to send 120 military police.

> May 23: Clashes between rebel soldiers and Army troops kill two people and wound five.

> May 11: The mandate for a UN mission of 130 administrators, police and military advisers is extended beyond its May 20 finish date.

> Australia puts the warships HMAS Manoora and HMAS Kanimbla on stand-by should East Timor require assistance.

> May 9: East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri says the violence is an attempted coup.

> April 28: A rally in support of the sacked soldiers turns into a riot when security forces fire on the crowd. Five people are killed and 21,000 people flee their homes.

> March: The East Timorese Government sacks 600 soldiers from its 1,400-strong force when they deserted their barracks complaining of regional discrimination in promotions.

> ## 2005

> June 1: The last of Australia's peacekeepers leave East Timor.

> May 20: The UN's peacekeeping force pulls out of East Timor.

> ## 2002

> May 20: East Timor is proclaimed to be an independent nation. It is the world's poorest country.

> April 14: Former resistance leader Xanana Gusmao is elected President of East Timor.

> March 22: East Timor's first Constitution comes into force.

> ## 2001

> August 30: East Timorese elect an 88-member Constituent Assembly that is tasked with writing and adopting a new Constitution.

> ## 1999

> October 25: The UN Security Council creates the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) to run the territory, organise elections and prepare it for independence.

> September 12: Australia leads a UN-backed intervention force to quell the violence.

> August 30: East Timorese vote for independence from Jakarta. The result sparks a rampage by pro-Indonesia militias, in which an estimated 1,000 people are killed.

> May: Indonesia and Portugal agree to allow East Timorese to vote on their future in a deal endorsed by the UN.

> ## 1996

> October 11: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the Acting Bishop of Dili, Carlos Belo, and resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta for raising international awareness of the East Timorese independence struggle.

> ## 1985

> Australia recognises Indonesia's rule over East Timor.

> ## 1976

> East Timor is declared an Indonesian province.

> ## 1975

> December: Indonesia invades East Timor.

> November: The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, which is known as Fretilin, declares East Timor independent.

> October: A group of Australian journalists, who become known as the Balibo five, are killed along the border with West Timor.

> ## 1974

> Portugal, which has controlled East Timor for centuries, withdraws after an attempt to establish a body that would determine the nation's status prompts civil war.

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