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majority of Timor Leste'€™s population and a sizable proportion of the country'€™s elite have come to terms with the past and look forward to engaging more with Indonesia after the two nations'€™ difficult relationship in the past, says Timor Leste'€™s Defense and Security Minister Julio Tomas Pinto.

Pinto told a seminar titled '€œEast Timor Security in the Regional Context'€ staged by the Indonesian Institute for Science (LIPI) on Thursday that even former members of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), many of whom currently hold senior political positions in Timor Leste, had moved on from the country'€™s bloody past and were open to mutually beneficial cooperation with Indonesia.

'€œLet the past be the past. We will not forget it but we do not want it to limit us. Our people, the elites and ordinary people, have come to that realization,'€ Pinto said in his speech.

Pinto said that Timor Leste, known as East Timor from 1976 up until its independence from Indonesia in 2002, had been actively engaged in efforts at reconciliation and cooperation with its former occupier.

He said that Timor Leste and Indonesia cooperated militarily and were now working on an integrated sea patrol agreement.

Historically the relationship between Timor Lester and Indonesia has been dominated by the latter'€™s invasion and almost three-decade long occupation.

In December 1975, Indonesia occupied East Timor in an military operation called Operasi Seroja, a few months after Fretilin declared independence from Portugal in September 1975.

The initial operation lasted for two years and Indonesia continued its occupation until 1999.

In July 1976, the disputed territory became the 27th province of Indonesia, although resistance to Indonesian rule continued, with more than 100,000 people, both military personnel and civilians, reportedly dying in conflict or from famine.

The resistance struggle and campaign for independence continued until a UN-supervised referendum in 1999, which was followed by the country'€™s independence in 2002.

LIPI'€™s researcher Ganewati Wuryandari said that relations between Indonesia and Timor Leste had been improving steadily with the former occupier now said to be the strongest supporter of Timor Leste'€™s bid to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

She encouraged Indonesia to put more effort into collaborating with Timor Leste.

'€œAlthough Timor Leste is a small country, it has a strategic position for Indonesia. It is a country that directly borders our East Nusa Tenggara province. Besides that we have cultural and historical links with the people of Timor Leste. We have to make use of that.'€ Ganewati told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The House of Representatives is expected to soon ratify a defense agreement with Timor Leste.

The ratification will allow Indonesia to improve joint military training, exchange intelligence information and trade weapons with Timor Leste.

The cooperation with Timor Leste was signed in 2011. (saf)