1975 Council of Ministers of East Timor

On 28 November 1975, Fretilin made a unilateral declaration of independence of East Timor from Portuguese colonial rule. On 30 November 1975, the party caused a "Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL)" to be read out at an inauguration ceremony for Francisco Xavier do Amaral as the newly appointed President of its new republic.^[1]

Article 40 of the new constitution provided for the establishment of a Council of Ministers. On 1 December 1975, Fretilin inaugurated that body.^[2]

By that time, however, Indonesian armed forces had infiltrated significant parts of the territory of East Timor, especially in what is now the Bobonaro Municipality, adjacent to the border with Indonesian West Timor.^[3] Just under a week later, on 7 December 1975, Indonesia began a full-scale invasion of East Timor, focused on Dili, the capital of the territory.^[4]

On 17 December 1975, Indonesia then brought about a de facto usurpation of Fretilin's Council of Ministers, by forming a Provisional Government of East Timor (PGET) (Indonesian: Pemerintah Sementara Timor Timur (PSTT)) headed by Arnaldo dos Reis Araújo [de] of the Timorese Popular Democratic Association (Portuguese: Associação Popular Democratica Timorense, APODETI) and Francisco Lopes da Cruz [de] of the Timorese Democratic Union (Portuguese: União Democrática Timorense, UDT).^[5]