Mahatma Gandhi

Birth name Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, AKA 'Gandhiji'.

Country: India.

Cause: Civil rights for Indian immigrants in South Africa and liberation of India from British colonial rule.

Background: British occupation of India begins at the start of the 17th Century, with the 'Raj' reaching its zenith at the end of the 19th Century. Indian opposition to colonial rule gains focus in the early 20th Century as the nation unites to expel the British. More background.

Mini biography: Born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in what is today the State of Gujarat in western India. His father is the prime minister of the principality. His mother is a deeply religious Hindu. The entire family follows a branch of Hinduism that advocates nonviolence and tolerance between religious groups.

1883 - At the age of 13 he marries Kasturba. He has been formally betrothed to two other girls before his engagement to Kasturba but both have died.

1888 - Gandhi sails to England to study law at University College, London.

1891 - Though admitted to the British bar, he returns to India and starts a practice as a barrister in the Bombay High Court.

1893 - He is employed by an Indian firm with interests in South Africa to act as legal adviser in its office in Durban, beginning a 20-year residence in South Africa.

Indian workers had been brought to South Africa in the mid-19th Century to labour on the sugar estates. Many had stayed on to form a small but closely-knit community. Gandhi is appalled by the treatment they receive in the racist society of South Africa and begins a campaign for their civil rights. He advocates a policy of passive resistance to, and noncooperation with, the South African authorities.

1906 - Gandhi begins a passive resistance campaign against laws prohibiting black South Africans, "coloureds" and Indians from travelling without a pass. He leads Indians in demonstrations and organises stop-work protests that win the support of thousands of people.

1914 - The South Africa Government, under pressure from the governments of Britain and India, accepts a reform package negotiated by Gandhi and the South African statesman General Jan Christian Smuts.

1915 - Gandhi returns to India. He quickly becomes involved in the home rule movement.

1916 - Gandhi meets Jawaharlal Nehru for the first time at the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress Party in Lucknow.

1917 - The British Parliament announces that Indians will be allowed greater participation in the colonial administration and that self-governing institutions will be gradually developed.

1919 - The promise of self-governing institutions is realised with the passing of the Government of India Act by the British Parliament. The Act introduces a dual administration in which both elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials share power, although the British retain control of critical portfolios like finance, taxation and law and order.

However, the goodwill created by the move is undermined in March by the passing of the Rowlatt Acts. These acts empower the Indian authorities to suppress sedition by censoring the press, detaining political activists without trial and arresting suspects without a warrant.

Gandhi describes the Rowlatt Acts as "instruments of oppression" and begins a campaign of resistance or 'Satyagraha' (the devotion to truth or truth force) against them and British rule.

"Satyagraha differs from passive resistance as the North Pole from the South," he says. "The latter has been conceived as a weapon for the weak and does not exclude the use of physical force or violence for the purpose of gaining one's end, whereas the former has been conceived as a weapon of the strongest and excludes the use of violence in any shape or form."

The Satyagraha movement spreads through India, gaining millions of followers, though Gandhi pulls back when violence breaks out and martial law is declared.

On 13 April the movement comes to a temporary halt when British troops fire at point-blank range into a crowd of 10,000 unarmed and unsuspecting Indians gathered at Amritsar in the Punjab to celebrate a Hindu festival. A total of 1,650 rounds are fired, killing 379 and wounding 1,137.

1920 - Gandhi proclaims an organised campaign of noncooperation. He urges Indians to boycott British institutions and products, to resign from public office, to withdraw their children from government schools, to refuse to pay taxes, and to forsake British titles and honours.

Gandhi is arrested, but the British are soon forced to release him. He refashions the Congress Party from an elite organisation into an effective political instrument with widespread grassroots support.

As well as Satyagraha, Gandhi advocates 'Swaraj' (self-rule), particularly in the economic sphere. He encourages the revival of cottage industries and begins to use a spinning wheel as a symbol for the return to the simple life and the renewal of domestic industry.

He also advocates 'Ahimsa' (nonviolence) and Hindu-Muslim unity. He leads his movement by example, rejecting earthly possessions and living an ascetic life of prayer, fasting and meditation. Indians begin to call him Mahatma, or 'Great Soul'.

1921 - The Congress Party gives Gandhi complete executive authority. However, after a series of violent confrontations between Indian demonstrators and the British authorities, he ends the campaign of civil disobedience.

1922 - In March Gandhi is arrested by the British and tried on a charge of conspiring to overthrow the government. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to six years imprisonment.

1924 - Gandhi is released from prison in January after an operation for appendicitis. His remaining jail sentence is unconditionally remitted.

1925 - He withdraws from politics to set up an ashram (commune), establish a newspaper, and work to help the rural poor and the members of the 'Untouchable' caste.

1927 - The British set up a commission to recommend further constitutional steps towards greater self-rule but fail to appoint an Indian to the panel. In response, the Congress boycotts the commission throughout India and drafts its own constitution demanding full independence by 1930.

1930 - Gandhi proclaims a new campaign of civil disobedience and calls upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign centres on a 400 km march to the sea between 12 March and 6 April.

Thousands follow Gandhi as he walks south from his commune at Ahmedabad (the capital of Gujarat) to Dandi (near Surat on the Gulf of Cambay). When they arrive they illegally make salt by evaporating seawater.

"Let the government then, to carry on its rules, use guns against us, send us to prison, hang us," Gandhi says during the march. "But how many can be given such punishment? Try and calculate how much time it will take of Britishers to hang 300 million of persons."

On 5 May Gandhi is arrested. He is held at Yerovila Jail in Poona for the rest of the year. About 30,000 other members of the independence movement are also held in jail.

Gandhi is named 'Time' magazine's person of the year for 1930.

1931 - Gandhi is released from prison on 26 January. He accepts a truce with the British, calls off the civil disobedience campaign and travels to London to attend a 'Round Table Conference' on the future of India.

On his return to India he finds that the situation has deteriorated. Hopes that calm will prevail following the negotiations between the Indians and the British are dashed when Gandhi and Nehru are again arrested and imprisoned.

1932 - In September, while still in jail, Gandhi begins a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Untouchable caste. The fast ends after six days when the British Government accepts a settlement agreement between the Untouchables and higher caste Indians.

1933 - In April Gandhi fasts for 21 days to again focus attention on the plight of the Untouchables. He is released from jail during this fast but rearrested with his wife and 30 followers on 31 July after commencing a new "individual" civil disobedience campaign and sentenced to a year in jail.

1934 - Gandhi formally resigns from politics and is replaced as leader of the Congress by Jawaharlal Nehru.

1935 - Limited self-rule is achieved when the British Parliament passes the Government of India Act (1935). The Act gives Indian provinces a system of democratic, autonomous government. However, it is only implemented after Gandhi gives his approval.

1937 - In February, after elections under the Government of India Act bring the Congress to power in seven of 11 provinces, the party is faced with a dilemma. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the defeated Muslim League, asks for the formation of coalition Congress-Muslim League governments in some of the provinces. His request is denied.

The subsequent clash between the Congress and the Muslim League hardens into a conflict between Hindus and Muslims that will ultimately lead to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.

During the year Gandhi is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is selected as a candidate for the shortlist but does not win the award. Further unsuccessful nominations follow in 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948.

1939 - Gandhi again returns to active political life, beginning a fast to support the federation of Indian principalities with the rest of country. The colonial government intervenes and Gandhi's demands are granted.

When the Second World War breaks out in September Britain unilaterally declares India's participation on the side of the Allies. In response the Congress withdraws from government and decides it will not to support the British war effort unless India is granted complete and immediate independence. The Muslim League, however, supports the British during the war.

1940 - In March the Congress gives Gandhi full power to determine policy and direct programs. Meanwhile, the Muslim League adopts the 'Pakistan Resolution' calling for areas with a Muslim majority in India's northwest and northeast to be partitioned from the Hindu core.

1941 - On 30 December Gandhi asks the Congress Working Committee to relieve him of its leadership. Despite stepping down he continues to run the party from behind the scenes.

1942 - With Japanese forces reaching the eastern borders of India, the British attempt to negotiate with the Indians. However, Gandhi will accept nothing less than independence and calls on the British to leave India.

When the Congress Party passes its 'Quit India' resolution in Bombay on 8 August the entire Congress Working Committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, is arrested and imprisoned.

Also during 1942 Gandhi officially designates Nehru as his political heir.

1943 - On 10 February Gandhi begins a 21-day fast to win his freedom. The British are unmoved and refuse to release him from custody.

1944 - In February Gandhi's wife dies. Gandhi is allowed to attend her cremation but is then returned to prison. On 6 May he is released for good because of failing health.

Meanwhile, the British Government agrees to independence for India on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress Party, resolve their differences. In September Gandhi discusses the possibility of partition with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the head of the Muslim League. The talks fail to resolve the issue.

1946 - Nehru, with Gandhi's blessing, is invited by the British to form an interim government to organise the transition to independence. Fearing it will be excluded from power, the Muslim League declares 16 August 'Direct Action Day'. When communal rioting breaks out in the north, partition comes to be seen as a valid alternative to the possibility of civil war.

1947 - On 3 June British Prime Minister Clement Attlee introduces a bill to the House of Commons calling for the independence and partition of the British Indian Empire into the separate nations of India and Pakistan. On 14 July the House of Commons passes the India Independence Act. Under the Act Pakistan is further divided into east and west wings on either side of India.

On 14 August Pakistan is declared to be independent. India formally attains its sovereignty at midnight on the same day. Amid the celebrations Nehru delivers a famous speech on India's "tryst with destiny", but the initial jubilation is soon tempered by violence.

Sectarian riots erupt as Muslims in India flee to Pakistan while Hindus in the Pakistan flee the opposite way. As many as two million die in north India, at least 12 million become refugees, and a limited war over the incorporation of Kashmir into India breaks out between the two nation states. Gandhi pleas for peace, using fasts to shame rioting mobs into order.

"If the peace is broken again I will come back and undertake a fast unto the death and die if necessary," he warns.

1948 - On 30 January Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi while on his way to his evening prayer meeting. His assassin is a Hindu extremist who opposes Gandhi's willingness to engage in dialogue with Muslims.

The same evening Nehru makes a radio address to the nation. "Gandhi has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere," he says. "The father of our nation is no more. No longer will we run to him for advice and solace. ... This is a terrible blow to millions and millions in this country. ...

"Our light has gone out, but the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. For a thousand years that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it. ... Oh, that this has happened to us! There was so much more to do."

Comment: Gandhi was the most inspirational leader of the first half of the 20th Century. His advocacy of civil disobedience and nonviolent mass protest as the most effective way of achieving social change has instructed freedom movements around the world, from Poland to the United States to Burma.

Reference: http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/gandhi.html

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XANANA GUSMAO

XANANA GUSMAO

Full name José Alexandre 'Xanana' Gusmao. AKA 'Maun Boot' (Big Brother), AKA 'Katuas' (The Old Man).

Country: East Timor (now Timor-Leste).

Cause: Liberation of East Timor from Indonesian regime.

Background: East Timor is colonised by the Portuguese in the 16th Century. When the Portuguese leave in 1975 it appears the colony might finally gain its independence. But Indonesia invades at the end of the same year. The East Timorese begin a 24-year struggle to liberate their homeland. More background.

Mini biography: Born on 20 June 1946 in Laleia, Manatuto, East Timor, the second son in a family of nine children. His parents are teachers. Gusmao is educated at the Jesuit mission of Nossa Senhora di Fatima at Dare in the hills overlooking Dili. After leaving school he works in various jobs in Dili - typist, draftsman, waterside worker and fisherman - before obtaining a permanent position in the public service and continuing his studies. While working as a journalist he takes the nom de plume 'Xanana'. The name will stick for the rest of his life.

1968 - Gusmao is recruited into the Portuguese Army to serve three years of national service.

1971 - His national service completed, Gusmao returns to the public service and begins to become involved in the Timorese independence movement.

1974 - The announcement by a new government in Portugal that it intends to withdraw from its colonies divides the East Timorese population and results in the formation of new political groups.

The Marxist Revolutionary Front for East Timor's Independence (Fretilin), founded on 20 May, calls for full independence. Gusmao joins the group, becoming deputy head of its Department of Information. The Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) initially favours a continued association with Portugal. When the UDT shifts its position the two groups join in an independence campaign.

The Popular Democratic Association of Timor (Apodeti) favours integration with Indonesia and receives backing from the Indonesian Government, which also wants to see the province integrated. Indonesia's policy on East Timor hardens following a meeting in September between Indonesian President Suharto and Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who acknowledges that it may be best if the province joins Indonesia, if the East Timorese so wish.

1975 - The rise in the influence of Fretilin causes concern in Indonesia, which fears that East Timor may turn communist. As the Portuguese administrators leave, Fretilin troops seize the bulk of the colonial armoury.

The UDT, also concerned by the rise of Fretilin, stages an abortive coup d'état on 10 August, leading to a civil war between Fretilin and an anticommunist coalition of UDT and Apodeti. Fretilin quickly takes control, occupying most of the province by September, despite the military support given to UDT and Apodeti by Indonesia.

On 28 November Fretilin proclaims the Democratic Republic of East Timor. Gusmao is elected to the Fretilin Central Committee. Fretilin organises its armed supporters into an official force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor (Falintil). The UDT and Apodeti call on Jakarta to intervene.

Indonesia invades on 7 December, landing forces at the capital Dili and at Baukau, 100 kilometres to the east, and installing a puppet government composed of members of UDT and Apodeti. Gusmao is the last member of Fretilin's Central Committee to leave the capital.

The invasion takes place with the blessing of United States President Gerald Ford and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who meet with Suharto in Jakarta on 6 December, the day before the Indonesian troops are mobilised.

"I would like to speak to you, Mr President, about another problem, Timor. ... Fretilin is infected the same as is the Portuguese Army with communism ... We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action," Suharto says to his visitors.

Ford replies, "We will understand and will not press you on this issue. We understand the problem you have and the intentions you have."

Kissinger says, "You appreciate that the use of US-made arms could create problems. ... It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defence or is a foreign operation. It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly. We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens, happens after we return."

It is estimated that 60,000 East Timorese, or 10% of the population, are killed in the first two months of the invasion. All told, up to 250,000 of East Timor's 1975 population of about 650,000 will die as a result of the occupation and the famine that follows.

1976 - By April there are an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Indonesian troops in the East Timor. They will remain permanently stationed there to "pacify" the population.

On 31 May the puppet government votes for integration with Indonesia, and on 17 July East Timor becomes the Indonesian province of Timor Timur.

Most of the world, including Portugal, never recognises the annexation and the move is condemned by the United Nations (UN), which continues to recognise Portuguese sovereignty over the territory.

In the aftermath of the invasion the Indonesian Government introduces a double-edged policy to attempt to win over the population.

On the one hand, resistance from Fretilin units operating from the hinterland is brutally suppressed; on the other, the government invests heavily in East Timor's development, allocating more funds per capita than in any other province, a combination that will have disastrous consequences as the millennium draws to a close.

1978 - Following the deaths of almost all of the Fretilin leadership, including the group's president, Nicolau Lobato, Gusmao finds himself in charge of the resistance.

Talking of the experience later, he says, "In the first three years we were, all the population together, trying to resist. And in the end of 77 to 78 we were destroyed. From almost 50,000 guerrillas we were reduced to 700. And I said, 'How can we resist? How can we win?'"

1981 - In March he organises the first national conference of Fretilin. He is formally elected leader of the resistance movement and commander-in-chief of Falintil.

The resistance survives a major Indonesian offensive - the "fence of legs" - during which civilians are used as human shields against the resistance fighters.

In September 160 Fretilin fighters and their families are massacred on the slopes of Mount Aitana, southeast of Dili.

1983 - The Indonesian military indicates it is prepared to hold peace talks. Gusmao negotiates with Indonesian General William da Costa in the remote mountain camp of Lari Guto. A cease-fire agreement is signed between the Indonesian Government and Fretilin on 23 March. However, the Indonesian Army resumes its offensive on 31 August. The East Timorese resistance holds.

Gusmao leaves Fretilin to concentrate on rebuilding the opposition movement on cross party lines. He introduces a 'Policy of National Unity', increases contacts with the Catholic Church and develops a clandestine network in urban areas and other occupied zones.

1986 - The success of the national unity program allows Gusmao to unit the East Timorese factions - including Fretilin, UDT and Renetil, the largest underground youth organisation - through the formation of the National Council of Maubere Resistance (CNRM ). Gusmao is made head of the council. Fretilin makes Falintil a non-partisan army, with Gusmao as commander.

1989 - On 1 January the Indonesian Government proclaims East Timor an open province to which travel and tourism are permitted on the same basis as anywhere else in Indonesia.

1991 - On 12 November, at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, Indonesian troops shoot and kill 271 unarmed Timorese attending the funeral of a young Timorese killed during an earlier demonstration. The so-called 'Dili Massacre' receives worldwide coverage.

The international community responds to the incident by suspending or threatening to suspend aid to Indonesia, prompting Suharto to appoint a national investigation commission to look into the incident.

The commission finds the army guilty of "excessive force". The senior officer in East Timor and his superior in Bali are replaced, three officers are dismissed from the army, and at least eight officers and soldiers are court-martialled.

Four junior officers are sentenced to jail terms of between eight and 14 months. However, the punishments are relatively light compared to the harsh sentences meted out to the Timorese accused of instigating the incident.

A worrying finding of the commission is that as well as the on-duty troops present at the cemetery there was "another group of unorganised security personnel, acting outside any control or command (that) also fired shots and committed beatings, causing more casualties."

1992 - Gusmao is captured in Dili by the Indonesian military on 20 November and charged with subversion. At his trial, which begins in February 1993, he is prevented from reading his 27-page defence statement. On May 21 he is sentenced to life imprisonment in Jakarta's Cipinang jail for having, according to the presiding judge, "disturbed the life of East Timorese." The sentence is later commuted to 20 years.

While in jail, Gusmao will meet his second wife, the foreign aid worker and English teacher Kirsty Sword. Sword, who also works covertly for the East Timorese resistance, will correspond by letter with Gusmao for years before the pair ever meet.

1993 - In March the US begins to support critics of Indonesia's rule in East Timor. The UN Human Rights Commission adopts a resolution expressing "deep concern" at human rights violations by Indonesia in East Timor. In May the administration of US President Bill Clinton places Indonesia on a human rights "watch" list. When Suharto meets Clinton in Tokyo in July concerns are raised about the East Timor human rights issue.

1994 - Talks between senior Indonesian Government figures and some Timorese resistance leaders are reported to take place in September. Talks between Indonesia and Portugal about East Timor also resume.

1996 - In October the East Timorese peace activists José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their "sustained efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people." The Noble Committee hopes that "this will spur efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict of East Timor based on the people's right to self-determination." The Indonesian Government is "astounded and surprised at the reason given for the award."

1997 - South African President Nelson Mandela visits Gusmao in prison. After the meeting President Mandela calls for Gusmao's release, saying it is essential to resolve the conflict in East Timor.

1998 - The East Timorese National Convention held in Portugal in April establishes the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) to replace CNRM. Gusmao is reaffirmed by acclamation as leader of the East Timorese resistance and president of CNRT.

Suharto is forced to step down as president of Indonesia in May. He is replaced by his deputy, Jusuf Habibie. In June Habibie proposes a fresh autonomy deal for East Timor and in August agrees to negotiate with Portugal and the UN on the future of the territory.

Independence for East Timor now seems near, although concern rapidly develops over the growth of antiseparatist Timorese militias. The militias, who are backed by elements from the Indonesian military, begin to warn of violent consequences if independence is granted to East Timor.

1999 - On 27 January Habibie announces that the East Timorese will be allowed to vote on self-determination. Shortly after two Indonesian special forces units, codenamed 'Tribuana' and 'Venus', arrive in East Timor to provide undercover assistance to the militias.

The antiseparatist militias step up their campaign of violence and intimidation, killing at least 22 civilians during an attack on the house of a Catholic priest in Liquica on 6 April. At least 12 more are killed in Dili on 17 April when the Aitarak (thorn) militia gang attacks the home of independence figure Manuel Carrascalao.

On 5 May Portugal and Indonesia agree on a formula to determine the fate of East Timor. A UN-supervised referendum will be held to establish if the East Timorese want autonomy within the Indonesian Republic or full independence. The referendum is scheduled for 30 August. Also in May Time Asia reports that the Suharto family fortune (worth an estimated US$15 billion) includes nearly 40% of the land in East Timor.

The referendum takes place in a tense atmosphere but without a major violent incident. 98.6% of the 444,666 registered voters cast a ballot. However, when it is announced on 4 September that 78.5% of the voters have chosen in favour of independence, chaos breaks out as the antiseparatist militias go on a murderous rampage.

During the weeks of violence that follow more than 1,000 die, the territory's infrastructure is destroyed and 500,000 of the entire population of 800,000 are forced to flee their homes, either to the country's interior or to neighbouring West Timor.

Indonesian police and soldiers participate directly in some of the atrocities and the forced transport of 250,000 refugees to West Timor.

Meanwhile, Gusmao, who had been moved to house arrest on 10 February, is freed on 7 September. He is unable to travel to East Timor immediately as his life would be in jeopardy but finally returns in October.

On 12 September Habibie agrees to the deployment of international forces to restore order. The situation is finally brought under control after 20 September, when the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET), an UN-backed, Australian-led peacekeeping force, lands in Dili. The militias retreat to West Timor, where they terrorise the East Timorese transported to the refugee camps there.

On 19 October the Indonesian Government ratifies the referendum result and revokes East Timor's incorporation into Indonesia. The UN officially assumes control of the territory on 25 October.

At the end of the year, Gusmao travels to Strasbourg in France to receive the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The prize seeks "in the spirit of Andrei Sakharov ... to honour individuals or organisations who have devoted themselves to the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the struggle against oppression and injustice."

Accepting the award, Gusmao says, "In Indonesia ... a system of repression and suppression was implemented through the imposition of a doctrine, Pancasila, which regimented thought and consequently human behaviour, in an attempt to destroy the ability to think in an individual, collective and, above all, free way.

"This doctrine permeated the whole of Indonesian society, was transposed to East Timor and was carefully backed by a campaign of physical torture and mental conditioning. Ironically though, these acts caused the opposite effect: they strengthened the identity and the determination of our people."

2000 - INTERFET is replaced by the UN Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) in February.

At the same time, a report by the UN International Commission of Inquiry for East Timor recommends the establishment of an international human rights tribunal to prosecute those responsible for serious human rights violations that took place in East Timor in 1999.

Meanwhile, Gusmao resigns as commander in chief of Falintil.

2001 - In April a secret Indonesian Government report on the violence surrounding the East Timor independence referendum is leaked to the media.

The report, prepared by the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in East Timor, finds that officers in the Indonesian military directed the militia violence and that top generals, including the then armed forces commander and defence minister, General Wiranto, were aware of the situation but did little to prevent it.

Wiranto is subsequently forced to step down from his Cabinet post as coordinating political and security minister.

The National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) is dissolved in May, with Gusmao's position as its president also coming to an end. Speaking at the dissolution ceremony, Gusmao says it is the first time a "victorious liberation movement had voluntarily sidelined itself from power."

East Timor's first general elections are held on 30 August, the second anniversary of the territory's vote for independence. Gusmao does not stand at the elections but uses his authority to ensure that the vote is conducted in a free and fair manner without violence or intimidation. "I will prevent there being bloodshed at all costs, by all available means," he says.

Fretilin wins the elections, but without the massive majority expected. The party takes 55 seats in the 88-seat Assembly, five seats short of the two-thirds majority it needs to form government in its own right. It becomes instead the dominant force in a coalition.

Following the election, Gusmao is given a position on East Timor's Planning Commission. He also heads the recognised resistance veterans association, numbering 11,000 members, setting up business ventures like a petrol distribution chain and a cement works to provide them with employment.

2002 - On 23 February Gusmao confirms that he will run as a candidate in the presidential election to be held on 14 April.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, the trials of 18 military personnel, militia leaders, and officials accused of participating in the violence leading up to and following the 1999 independence referendum begin in a special human rights tribunal on 14 March.

On the same day, 'The Sydney Morning Herald' reveals that senior ministers within the Indonesian Government were directing the Indonesian involvement in the violence and deportations surrounding the independence referendum, including the then coordinating minister for politics and security, General Feisal Tanjung, and the former generals A.M. Hendropriyono and Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah.

Major-general Sjafrie Sjamsuddin is identified as the chief architect of the operation and Major-general Zacky Anwar Makarim as the on-ground coordinator.

Of the 18 defendants facing the special human rights tribunal only two will be jailed, Abilio Soares, the former governor of East Timor, and Eurico Guterres, the leader of the Dili-based Aitarak (thorn) militia gang and the deputy leader of the East Timor militia network. Both convictions are later overturned, in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

None of the military officers brought before the tribunal serve any jail time. District commander Lieutenant-colonel Soejarwo is convicted, as are regional commander Major-general Adam Damiri and Brigadier-general Noer Moeis. However, all the convictions are overturned by an appellate tribunal.

Former police commissioner Hulman Gultom also has his conviction overturned.

According to the former head of the UN mission in East Timor, the trials are a complete failure and the UN should now set up its own tribunal to investigate the violence that occurred before and after the independence vote.

Amnesty International and the Judicial System Monitoring Program issue a joint statement saying that the verdicts are "seriously flawed, have not been performed in accordance with international standards, and have delivered neither truth not justice."

In East Timor, a special team of UN prosecutors, operating as an arm of the East Timorese government, conducts its own investigations into the human rights abuses surrounding the 1999 election. By October 2003, 367 Indonesians and East Timorese have been indicted, including former Indonesian military chief, General Wiranto. However, only 36 have been convicted, all of them East Timorese, and the indictments are not recognised by Indonesia.

The presidential election is held without incident on 14 April. About 86% of East Timor's 439,000 eligible voters cast a ballot. Gusmao wins in a landslide, receiving 83% of the vote and taking in 12 of the country's 13 provinces. On 17 April he is declared president of East Timor. During his five-year term he will also act as commander-in-chief of East Timor's defence force.

As East Timor's independence day approaches, dignitaries from 92 countries, including former US President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio gather in Dili to witness the birth of the world's 192nd nation.

At midnight on 19 May Annan hands government to Gusmao and declares East Timor independent. The UN flag is lowered and the East Timor flag raised. About 100,000 East Timorese watch the ceremony.

"We wanted to be ourselves," Gusmao says. "We wanted to take pride in being ourselves, a people and a nation. Today with your assistance we are effectively what we have always striven to be."

Hours later Gusmao swears in the new East Timor Government. UNTAET is dissolved, although the UN retains a presence through the UN Mission of Support in East Timor. The country joins the UN on 27 September, becoming its 191st member.

Unemployment in East Timor is estimated to be as high as 65%; more than 40% of the country's population of 800,000 live below the poverty line, earning less that $1 a day; the average life expectancy is only 56 years; and half the adult population is illiterate.

Gusmao soon begins to openly criticise the Fretilin government for failing to live up to its promises and meet people's expectations.

2004 - On 22 March the UN-funded Serious Crimes Unit in East Timor releases evidence which it claims proves that General Wiranto was in control of the militias that ran riot following the 1999 referendum.

"The evidence is overwhelming that the armed forces, headed by Wiranto, exercised de facto and effective control over the militias," the unit's 92-page evidence summary says.

"Wiranto's de facto or effective control over the militia is demonstrated by evidence that the militias were formed, funded, armed and controlled by the Indonesian army with the knowledge of the accused (Wiranto)."

More background to the violence surrounding the 1999 referendum emerges on 5 April when 'The Sydney Morning Herald' exposes a till then suppressed report prepared for the UN Human Rights Commission.

According to the author of the report, Geoffrey Robinson, a specialist on Indonesia and veteran of the UN mission in Dili, Australia and the US helped to set the conditions in which the violence could go unchecked by backing Indonesia's demand that UN troops be kept out of East Timor before the vote.

As a result the treaty signed between Portugal and Indonesia in May 1999 "placed sole responsibility for maintaining law and order in the hands of Indonesian forces," Robinson says.

Robinson recommends that 75 senior Indonesian officers, including Wiranto, should stand trial for war crimes in a special international court.

At the end of August Gusmao convenes a meeting to address the concerns of veterans of the resistance fight against the Indonesian occupation. The veterans, who are dissatisfied with the progress of development in East Timor, believe the situation may deteriorate unless there is a restructuring of all state institutions.

On 2 December Gusmao calls on the military junta in Burma to release democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

"I appeal to the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi," Gusmao says. "I'm not talking as the president of East Timor to pressure the (Burmese) junta, but I'm talking as a former political prisoner asking the junta to reflect on this. ...

"They can never kill her mind, even if she's put in a very, very, difficult position in detention. ... They can never kill her spirit, her sense of principles or her sense of freedom. ... I know Suu Kyi will be strong and I ask her to keep being strong."

On 14 December Gusmao meets with new Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali. The meeting results in the establishment of a joint Indonesian and East Timor Commission on Truth and Friendship to investigate the events surrounding the 1999 referendum. The commission holds its first meeting on 4 August 2005. The UN later boycotts the proceedings, saying that because the commission may recommend amnesties for serious crimes it should not be endorsed or condoned.

2005 - On 20 May the UN withdraws the last of its peacekeepers from East Timor. A small UN staff of about 70 political, military and police advisers will stay on for another year.

The Australian peacekeeping force withdraws on 13 June.

Meanwhile, the report of a UN-appointed Commission of Experts set up to review the prosecution of human rights violations in East Timor is released at the end of July. The report concludes that the prosecution of the 18 defendants brought before the special human rights tribunal in Jakarta was "manifestly inadequate, primarily owing to a lack of commitment on the part of the prosecution."

"The failure to investigate and prosecute the defendants in a credible manner has not achieved accountability of those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations," the report says.

The commission recommends that Indonesia reviews the prosecutions and reopens them as appropriate. If Indonesia fails to act within a time-frame to be set by the UN secretary-general, the UN Security Council should create an independent tribunal to pursue the cases, the commission states.

On 28 November Gusmao presents the East Timor Parliament with a report by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor, an independent group set up in 2002 to investigate the killings committed during the Indonesian occupation.

According to reports in 'The Australian' newspaper and other media outlets, the 2,500-page report finds that 18,600 East Timorese civilians were murdered or disappeared during the Indonesian occupation and between 84,200 and 183,000 more died as a direct result of Indonesia's policies. Indonesian police or soldiers were to blame for 70% of the 18,600 murders and disappearances.

The report is based on interviews with almost 8,000 witnesses from East Timor, statements from refugees in West Timor, Indonesian military documents and intelligence from international sources.

"The crimes committed in 1999 were far outweighed by those committed during the previous 24 years of occupation," the report says.

The Indonesian security forces "consciously decided to use starvation of East Timorese civilians as a weapon of war."

"The intentional imposition of conditions of life which could not sustain tens of thousands of East Timorese civilians amounted to extermination as a crime against humanity committed against the East Timorese population. ...

"Rape, sexual slavery and sexual violence were tools used as part of the campaign designed to inflict a deep experience of terror, powerlessness and hopelessness upon pro-independence supporters. ...

"The violations were committed in execution of a systematic plan approved, conducted and controlled by Indonesian military commanders at the highest level. ...

"Members of the civil administration of Timor and national-level government officials, including (Indonesian) ministers, knew of the strategy being pursued on the ground, and rather than taking action to halt it, directly supported its implementation."

The report finds that the violence surrounding the 1999 independence vote was also part of a systematic plan approved, conducted and controlled by Indonesian military commanders to the highest level.

The report calls for reparations for victims of torture, rape and violence. It also recommends that this compensation be paid by Indonesia, Portugal and foreign nations that sold weapons to Indonesia and supported the annexation of East Timor.

"The Permanent Members of the Security Council, particularly the US but also Britain and France, who gave military backing to the Indonesian government between 1974 and 1999 and who are duty-bound to uphold the highest principles of world order and peace and to protect the weak and vulnerable, (should) assist the Government of Timor-Leste in the provision of reparations to victims of human rights violations suffered during the Indonesian occupation. Business corporations that profited from the sale of weapons to Indonesia during the occupation of Timor-Leste (should) contribute to the reparations program," the report says.

According to the report, the mandate of the UN special crimes unit should be renewed to allow it to investigate and try human rights violations. The UN Security Council should also set up an international tribunal "should other measures be deemed to have failed to deliver a sufficient measure of justice and Indonesian persists in the obstruction of justice."

Gusmao is critical of the report and recommends that it not be made public. "This recommendation does not take into account the situation of political anarchy and social chaos that could easily erupt if we decided to bring to court every crime committed since 1974 or 1975," he says.

"The grandiose idealism that (the commissioners) possess is well manifested to the point that it goes beyond conventional political boundaries. ...

"The report says the 'absence of justice ... is a fundamental obstacle in the process of building a democratic society'. My reply to that would be not necessarily. ...

"The best justice, the true justice, was the recognition by the international community of the right to ... independence."

2006 - Gusmao presents the report to the UN on 21 January 2006. He is due to deliver a copy to Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono on his way back from the UN but the meeting is cancelled by the Indonesian authorities.

Gusmao and Yudhoyono finally meet in Bali on 17 February. They agree to ignore the findings of the report and focus instead on the investigation by the joint Indonesian and East Timor Commission on Truth and Friendship.

Late in April a political crisis develops in East Timor that threatens to plunge the fledgling democracy into civil war.

The crisis is built on dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, rivalries among the military and police, and tensions between ethnic groups from the east and west provinces.

Violent clashes among the police and military and result in several deaths. Rioting in Dili between competing gangs results in more deaths, looting and the widespread destruction of property. Overall at least 37 people are killed.

More than 150,000 frightened civilians flee the city or seek shelter in refugee camps.

With the government unable or unwilling to control the situation, and with Gusmao's power to intervene limited by the constitution, Foreign Minister José Ramos-Horta takes responsibility for securing the intervention of a foreign peace-keeping force and extending Gusmao's executive authority, especially in matters of defence and national security.

Australian troops arrive in East Timor at the end of May. They will be joined by security forces from New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal.

On 30 May Gusmao declares a "state of grave crisis" and takes direct control of the armed forces, the police and the defence and interior ministries to "prevent the violence and avoid further fatalities."

After a month-long stand-off Alkatiri finally steps down on 26 June. Ramos-Horta is sworn in as caretaker prime minister on 10 July.

A new government is formed on 14 July. "Today we close a cycle of profound crisis that has subjected our people to unpredictable and unjust sufferings and distress," Gusmao says at the swearing in ceremony.

2007 - Gusmao does not stand for another term in presidential elections held on 9 April, stepping down instead to lead a new party, the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), in parliamentary elections held on 30 June. He is replaced as president by José Ramos-Horta.

When no party wins an overall majority in the elections, the CNRT, with 24% of the vote and 18 of the 65 parliamentary seats, forms a coalition with the Association of Timorese Democrats-Social Democratic Party coalition (11 seats) and the Democratic Party (eight seats), putting Gusmao in a position to claim government.

José Ramos-Horta appoints Gusmao as prime minister of a coalition government on 6 August. The new government is sworn in on 8 August.

2008 - The ramifications of the 2006 political crisis hit Gusmao directly early on the morning of 11 February when his convoy is ambushed by a band of rebel soldiers as it travels from his house to his office. Gusmao escapes unharmed from what is thought to have been a botched assassination attempt.

José Ramos-Horta, however, is not so lucky. An earlier attack on his house by the rebels leaves him seriously injured with multiple bullet wounds. He is flown to Darwin in Australia for medical treatment the same day.

Gusmao declares a state of emergency and the situation is quickly brought under control by international peacekeepers stationed in East Timor.

Meanwhile, the report of the Commission on Truth and Friendship investigation into the violence surrounding the 1999 referendum is leaked to the media in July.

According to 'The Sydney Morning Herald', the report finds that "Indonesian soldiers, police and civilian officials were involved in an 'organised campaign of violence'" and the "Indonesian state bears 'institutional responsibility' for atrocities including murder, rape, torture, illegal detention, and forced mass deportations."

Quoting directly from the 321-page report, the Herald writes, "The provision of funding and material support by military and government officials was an integral part of a well-organised and continuous cooperative relationship, in the pursuit of common political goals aimed at promoting militia activities that would intimidate or prevent civilians from supporting the pro-independence movement.

"TNI (Indonesian military) and police personnel, as well as civilian officials, were at times involved in virtually every phase of these activities that resulted in gross human rights violations including murder, rape, torture, illegal detention, and forcible transfer and deportation.

"Viewed as a whole, the gross human rights violations committed against pro-independence supporters in East Timor in 1999 constitute an organised campaign of violence.

"The TNI , Polri (police) and civilian government all bear institutional responsibility for these crimes."

At the formal release of the report on 15 July, Gusmao, Ramos-Horta and Indonesia President Yudhoyono accept the commission's findings and recommendations.

"We convey our deep regret over what happened in the past that has caused the loss of lives and property," Yudhoyono says.

Comment: Leader and poet, Gusmao is seen as a voice of reason and moderation in the debate over the future of East Timor. Like South Africa's Nelson Mandela he advocates reconciliation rather than retribution as the best method of healing the country's wounds. Since returning to East Timor he has been a key player in reconciliation talks with antiseparatist militia leaders.

In his acceptance speech at the presentation of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, José Ramos-Horta said, "This speech belongs to someone else who should be here today. He is an outstanding man of courage, tolerance and statesmanship. Yet, this man is in prison for no other crime than his ideas and vision of peace and freedom ... Through Xanana, I bow to my people in profound respect, loyalty and humility because they are the real heroes and peacemakers."

Speaking after East Timor was liberated, Ramos-Horta said of Gusmao, "I tell you this, and I tell you frankly, this is the most extraordinary human being I have met in my life and I have met many, many great people."

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Who is Pol Pot?

Pol Pot

Pol Pot

AKA 'Brother Number One'. Birth name Saloth Sar.

Country: Cambodia.

Kill tally: One to three million (or between a quarter and a third of the country's population).

Background: Cambodia becomes a French protectorate in 1863. Complete independence is finally granted in November 1953, with Prince Norodom Sihanouk establishing a 16-year rule. The region is soon destabilised by the war in Vietnam. In November 1963 Sihanouk terminates an aid program run by the United States and in May 1965, as the war spills into Cambodia, breaks relations completely.

Meanwhile, domestic opposition to Sihanouk begins to mount. A ruthless clampdown on opponents forces many to go underground and take up arms, including the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communist insurgency movement led by Saloth Sar, later to be known across the world as Pol Pot.

The threat of the communist insurgents, the effects of the lack of US aid, an increase in incursions by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong and the subsequent counterstrikes by US and South Vietnamese forces lead Sihanouk to reevaluate the country's relations with Washington. But by the time he turns back to the US in June 1969 it is too late. More background.

Mini biography: Born on 19 May 1925 in Prek Sbauv in Kampong Thum province, north of Phnom Penh. His father is a prosperous farmer and his family has connections to the Cambodian royal family.

1931 - At the age of six he moves to Phnom Penh to live with his brother, an official at the royal palace. He learns the rudiments of Buddhism during a brief stay at a pagoda near the royal palace before receiving his formal education at a number of French language schools and at a Catholic college, although he never obtains a high school diploma.

1946 - While serving with the anti-French resistance under Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, he joins the outlawed Indochinese Communist Party.

1949 - Pol Pot wins a government scholarship to study radio electronics in Paris. He fails to obtain a degree but becomes enthralled by writings on Marxism and revolutionary socialism and forges bonds with other likeminded young Cambodians studying in the metropolis, including Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Khieu Ponnary and Song Sen. The members of this so-called 'Paris student group' are destined to become the leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

While in Paris Pol Pot also joins the French Communist Party and helps transform the Association of Khmer Students into a platform for nationalist and leftist ideas, openly challenging the Sihanouk government.

In a pamphlet titles 'Monarchy or Democracy' he writes, "(The monarchy) is a vile pustule living on the blood and sweat of the peasants. Only the National Assembly and democratic rights give the Cambodian people some breathing space. ... The democracy which will replace the monarchy is a matchless institution, pure as a diamond."

1951 - The Indochinese Communist Party, which is dominated by the Vietnamese, is reorganised in September into three separate units representing Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, although the Vietnamese continue to supervise the smaller movements. The Cambodian unit is named the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).

1953 - After having his scholarship revoked Pol Pot returns to Cambodia and throws himself into work for the KPRP, first in the Kampong Cham province northwest of Phnom Penh and then in the capital itself. He also travels to the east of the country to meet with the Vietnamese communists.

He supports himself by teaching history and geography at a private school, where he is well liked and respected by his pupils.

1956 - Pol Pot marries Khieu Ponnary.

1960 - In late September Pol Pot and the 'Paris student group' take control of the KPRP, renaming it the Workers' Party of Kampuchea (WPK) and turning it away from its Vietnamese patrons. Pol Pot is elected to the number three position on the party's Central Committee, allowing him to build a strong faction.

1963 - In February Pol Pot is chosen as the WPK's general secretary, the highest position in the party, following the mysterious disappearance of the previous incumbent. In July he and most of the WPK Central Committee leave Phnom Penh to organise an insurgency base, 'Office 100', on the border with Vietnam in the country's northeast.

1965 - Pol Pot walks the recently completed 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' to Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, for consultations with the North Vietnamese communists, who are critical of his nationalist agenda and tell him to delay an armed struggle in Cambodia until the US is driven from Vietnam.

1966 - He receives a better reception when he makes his first visit to China, where the 'Cultural Revolution' has just been launched. He is influenced by the leading radicals supporting the movement and by Mao Tse-Tung's concept of a continuous revolution. He will return to Cambodia determined to further loosen ties with the Vietnamese communists.

The WPK changes its name again, to the Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP), though the Cambodian communists are now more commonly known as the 'Khmer Rouge'. The party's all-powerful Central Committee, headed by Pol Pot, is referred to as 'Angkar' (organisation).

1967 - Returning from a trip to North Vietnam, Pol Pot takes refuge in the northeast of Cambodia. He lives with a hill tribe and is impressed by their simple, non-material way of life, seeing it as a realisation of communist ideals.

Insurrection breaks out in the west of Cambodia at the start of the year. It is suppressed brutally but not completely and spreads. By the end of 1968 unrest is reported in 11 of the country's 18 provinces and by the end of the decade the Khmer Rouge almost completely control the mountainous regions on the border with Vietnam.

1968 - The Khmer Rouge establish the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea in January. Aided by the US, the army launches a small and ineffectual insurgency campaign.

1969 - In March the US begins secret bombing raids on Vietnamese communist sanctuaries and supply routes inside Cambodia (dubbed the 'Menu Series'). Authorised by the newly installed US President, Richard M. Nixon, and directed by his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, the raids are illegal, as the US has not officially declared war on Cambodia. In 14 months, 110,000 tons of bombs are dropped. When news of the raids is leaked Kissinger orders surveillance and phone tapping of suspects to uncover the source.

US bombing raids into Cambodia will continue until 1973. All told 539,129 tons of ordnance will be dropped on the country, much of it in indiscriminate B-52 carpet-bombing raids. The tonnage is about three and a half times more than that (153,000 tons) dropped on Japan during the Second World War.

Up to 600,000 Cambodians die but the raids are militarily ineffective. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports that the bombing raids are serving to increase the popularity of the Khmer Rouge among the affected Cambodian population.

1970 - Sihanouk travels abroad in January to solicit Chinese and Soviet assistance to stop North Vietnam from encroaching on Cambodian territory during the course of its war with South Vietnam and the US.

On 18 March Sihanouk's right-wing opponents within the government seize the opportunity, banning his return from China and installing Defence Minister Lon Nol as premier of the newly proclaimed Khmer Republic. The coup is supported by the CIA.

The new, US-backed government stirs anti-Vietnamese sentiment and initiates ineffectual military operations against the Viet Cong troops. Simultaneously, the Lon Nol government cancels an agreement allowing North Vietnam to use the port at Sihanoukville.

In April US President Nixon authorises the invasion of Cambodia by a joint US-South Vietnamese force of 30,000 troops. Tasked with destroying Vietnamese communist bases inside Cambodia, the force pushes the Vietnamese further into Cambodia but is otherwise ineffective and is forced to withdraw in June by the US Congress.

In China, Sihanouk forms a government in exile and builds an alliance with the Khmer Rouge. Both are intent on seeing the overthrow of the Lon Nol government.

The Khmer Rouge receive military aid and training from the North Vietnamese and support from China and are quickly transformed into an effective fighting force, expanding from a small guerilla outfit of less than 5,000 to an army of 100,000 in a matter of months.

By June the republic's troops have been swept from the entire northeastern third of the country. Areas in the south and southwestern parts of the country are also overrun. By 1973 the Khmer Rouge are able to launch independent and successful attacks against the Khmer Republic troops, taking control of nearly 60% of Cambodia's territory and 25% of its population.

1973 - In an attempt to prop-up the Lon Nol government, halt the Khmer Rouge assault and destroy North Vietnamese bases in Cambodia, the Nixon administration secretly intensifies the bombing of the country, without government authorisation, and despite having signed a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese on 27 January.

1974 - In March the Khmer Rouge capture the old capital of Odongk, north of Phnom Penh. In a foretaste of what is to come, the city is destroyed, its 20,000 inhabitants are dispersed into the countryside, and teachers and public servants are executed.

1975 - Now in control of most the Cambodian countryside, the Khmer Rouge surround and isolate the capital Phnom Penh, which has swollen with refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge and the US bombers. The noose steadily tightens. On April 17, Phnom Penh falls. Within days the city's entire population of over two million is marched into the countryside at gunpoint.

Pol Pot declares 'Year Zero' and directs a ruthless program to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences in favour of an isolated and totally self-sufficient Maoist agrarian state. No opposition is tolerated.

Foreigners are expelled, embassies closed, and the currency abolished. Markets, schools, newspapers, religious practices and private property are outlawed.

Members of the Lon Nol government, public servants, police, military officers, teachers, ethnic Vietnamese, Christian clergy, Muslim leaders, members of the Cham Muslim minority, members of the middle-class and the educated are identified and executed.

Towns and cities are emptied and their former inhabitants are deemed "April 17th people" or "new people". The country's entire population is forced to relocate to agricultural collectives, the so-called "killing fields". Inmates exist in primitive conditions. Families are separated. Buddhist monks are defrocked and forced into labour brigades. Former city residents are subjected to unending political indoctrination. Children are encouraged to spy on adults.

An estimated 1.5 million are worked or starved to death, die of disease or exposure, or are summarily executed for infringements of camp discipline. Infringements punishable by death include not working hard enough, complaining about living conditions, collecting or stealing food for personal consumption, wearing jewellery, engaging in sexual relations, grieving over the loss of relatives or friends and expressing religious sentiments.

Khmer Rouge records from the Tuol Sleng interrogation and detention centre in Phnom Penh (also known as S-21) show that 14,499 "antiparty elements", including men women and children, are tortured and executed from 1975 to the first six months of 1978. Only seven of those detained at the centre will leave it alive.

At least 20 other similar centres operate throughout the country.

Terror and paranoia reign, reaching a climax in 1977 and 1978 when Pol Pot launches a bloody purge against the "hidden enemies, burrowing from within" and the Khmer Rouge cadres turn on themselves. At least 200,000 are executed.

1976 - The Khmer Rouge declare the new state of Democratic Kampuchea on 5 January. Sihanouk resigns as head of state on 2 April and is placed under virtual house arrest in Phnom Penh. Pol Pot is made prime minister, although his identity and the identities of other members of the 'Angkar' group are kept secret from non-members. To most inside and out of Cambodia he is a shadowy figure known as 'Brother Number One'. The subordinate leaders of the party are known as 'Brother Number Two', 'Brother Number Three', and so on.

It is not revealed that 'Angkar' is in fact the Kampuchean Communist Party until September 1977.

A four year plan is introduced that seeks to treble the country's agricultural output within a year.

1977 - Although almost the entire population is involved in agricultural production, Cambodia experiences food shortages, resulting in many more deaths. Conflicts along the Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese borders escalate. Relations with Vietnam are broken in December. At the same time, Vietnam begins to turn away from China towards the Soviet Union.

Pol Pot, meanwhile, makes a state visit to China, which promises ongoing support, including military assistance for any conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam.

1978 - Vietnam deploys division-sized units along the Cambodian border and sponsors the establishment of an anti-Pol Pot movement called the Kampuchean (or Khmer) National United Front for National Salvation.

On 25 December the Vietnamese launch a full-scale military invasion of Cambodia, rapidly pushing aside the Khmer Rouge. Phnom Penh is captured on 7 January 1979. Sihanouk flees to China on the last flight out of the capital. Pol Pot and the defeated Khmer Rouge retreat to the country's remote western regions from where they will stage a fitful guerilla war destined to last a further 20 years.

Between one and three million Cambodians, or about one quarter of the country's entire population of about seven million, have died during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Pol Pot's rule. On a per capita basis the Khmer Rouge "revolution" is easily the deadliest in modern Asian history.

1979 - Three days after the fall of Phnom Penh the Vietnamese occupying forces establish the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), governed by the KPRP and headed by Heng Samrin, a former Khmer Rouge military commander.

Already at war with the Khmer Rouge, the PRK faces further resistance from two new insurgent movements - the noncommunist Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) headed by Son Sann, and the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC) headed by Norodom Sihanouk.

China also enters the dispute, launching a limited invasion of Vietnam in February and March in retaliation for Vietnam's incursion into Cambodia. China is, however, primarily concerned by the improving relations between Vietnam and the Soviet Union.

ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) shares China's concerns about the spread of Soviet-backed communism in the region. Its member nations play a key role in ensuring that the United Nations (UN) continues to recognise Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea as the legal representative of Cambodia. The UN also withholds development aid from the KPRP government.

In August a Phnom Penh "people's revolutionary tribunal" tries Pol Pot in absentia for genocide and sentences him to death. In December Pol Pot is replaced as prime minister of the Khmer Rouge "government" by Khieu Samphan. Pol Pot remains as leader of the KCP and the Khmer Rouge armed forces.

It is reported that the Khmer Rouge are receiving military backing from China and the US. It is also reported that a former deputy director of the CIA visits Pol Pot's operational base in November 1980. During 1980 the World Food Program supplies the Khmer Rouge with food worth US$12 million.

Meanwhile, Pol Pot's wife, Khieu Ponnary, goes insane. He will divorce her and in 1985 remarry a much younger second wife with who he will have a daughter. Khieu Ponnary dies in 2003.

1982 - On 22 June the Khmer Rouge, KPNLF and FUNCINPEC join in a coalition (the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea) against the Vietnamese. The agreement has been brokered by ASEAN. Sihanouk is chosen as the coalition's president, Khieu Samphan is vice president and Son Sann is prime minister.

The coalition, which proposes a general election under UN supervision once the Vietnamese have withdrawn, is recognised by the UN as the lawful government of Cambodia and funded by China, the US and Thailand.

1985 - Pol Pot officially resigns as commander of the Khmer Rouge military forces, although he retains a supervisory role.

1987 - In December Sihanouk arranges direct talks between himself and Hun Sen, the premier of the PRK. The talk's are largely fruitless but do open the lines of communication between the two sides.

1988 - In May Vietnam announces plans to withdraw 50,000 troops from Cambodia by the end of the year. By December not only have the troops gone but also the Vietnamese military high command.

In July all the parties in the Cambodian conflict attend an informal meeting in Bogor, Indonesia. Vietnam links a total withdrawal of its troops to the elimination of the Khmer Rouge. China calls for a complete withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops but rules out any role for Pol Pot in a post-settlement government. The meeting ends inconclusively, as does a subsequent meeting held in February 1989.

Meanwhile, rapprochement between the Soviet Union and China causes the Soviets to also pressure Vietnam to withdraw.

1989 - In Europe, the French Government convenes the Paris International Conference on Cambodia from 30 July to 30 August. Called to mediate a settlement between the PRK and the coalition, the conference stalls when no agreement can be reached on the future of the Khmer Rouge once all the Vietnamese troops are withdrawn. China, however, promises to cut all aid to the Khmer Rouge when a settlement is finalised.

The troop withdrawal is completed in September. The PRK remains in power, headed by Hun Sen. The country is renamed Cambodia and the constitution amended. Renewed fighting between the PRK troops and the opposition forces, including the Khmer Rouge, breaks out on the country's western frontier with Thailand.

1991 - On 23 October the four factions finally sign a peace treaty establishing a temporary coalition government under the supervision of a UN peacekeeping force. Sihanouk returns to Cambodia and is named president.

1993 - Cambodia's first multiparty elections since 1972 are held in May, although they are boycotted by the Khmer Rouge, which claims that the Vietnamese are still covertly occupying the country. When no single party wins a majority the KPNLF and FUNCINPEC form a coalition with two smaller groups.

However, Hun Sen refuses to give up control of the government, leading to a power-sharing arrangement between the coalition and the PRK.

The UN withdraws after the election and China, the US and Thailand stop their financial aid.

Pol Pot goes into hiding and continues the insurgency against the government. He is reported to be in command of a shrinking and demoralised Khmer Rouge guerrilla force based in the Phnum Dangrek Range near the northern border with Thailand. Funding for the movement is obtained through the sale of gem mining and logging concessions to Thai interests, with the revenue estimated to be worth about US$200 million a year.

1996 - The Khmer Rouge begin to split. In August Ieng Sary, Khmer Rouge foreign minister and 'Brother Number Three', defects to the Cambodian armed forces, bringing about 4,000 guerrillas with him. Ieng Sary subsequently names Pol Pot as the sole instigator of the Khmer Rouge policies of genocide. It is the beginning of the end for the Khmer Rouge, who are now reduced to just a few thousand cadres.

1997 - In June Pol Pot becomes convinced that Song Sen, the Khmer Rouge minister for defence and his friend for 40 years, is collaborating with the Cambodian Government and orders his execution. Sen's wife and children are also killed.

Pol Pot is subsequently arrested by Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge military commander and 'Brother Number Five'. On 25 July a "peoples' tribunal" sentences Pol Pot to life imprisonment for Sen's murder. He is reported to be ailing and near death.

During the trial Pol Pot agrees to an interview with Nate Thayer, a journalist with the 'Far Eastern Economic Review'.

"First, I want to let you know that I came to join the revolution, not to kill the Cambodian people," Pol Pot tells Thayer.

"Look at me now. Do you think ... am I a violent person? No. So, as far as my conscience and my mission were concerned, there was no problem. This needs to be clarified. ...

"My experience was the same as that of my movement. We were new and inexperienced and events kept occurring one after the other which we had to deal with. In doing that, we made mistakes as I told you. I admit it now and I admitted it in the notes I have written.

"Whoever wishes to blame or attack me is entitled to do so. I regret I didn't have enough experience to totally control the movement. On the other hand, with our constant struggle, this had to be done together with others in the communist world to stop Kampuchea becoming Vietnamese.

"For the love of the nation and the people it was the right thing to do but in the course of our actions we made mistakes."

Meanwhile, Hun Sen and the PRK seize full control of the Cambodian Government in July, using force of arms to oust the coalition in an action that amounts to a military coup.

1998 - Pol Pot dies in the evening of 15 April, reportedly from heart failure, although the cause of his death remains unclear. Hours earlier he had learned from a radio broadcast that Ta Mok was willing to hand him over to the government for trial. His body is cremated on a pyre of old car tyres beside a village latrine. The site is later enclosed by a crude timber shelter roofed with old sheets of corrugated iron.

In May Cambodian armed forces capture the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge in the country.

Postscript

1999 - In February the last remaining members of the Khmer Rouge are incorporated into the Cambodian armed forces. In March Ta Mok, the last Khmer Rouge leader at large, is arrested.

2001 - A report released by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam) in July accuses seven former Khmer Rouge leaders of direct participation in the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime and verifies the existence of "a policy of mass murder devised at the highest levels of power and implemented through a coordinated chain of command".

"No longer will those most responsible for the deaths of nearly one third of the population of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge reign be able to say they did not know," the report says.

The Documentation Centre is a private organisation set up to collect Khmer Rouge records as a historical resource for the public and as potential evidence in any future trials. It originated in the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University in 1995 with a grant from the US Department of State.

By September 2002 the centre has collected 5,922 pages of documents directly implicating a dozen former Khmer Rouge figures in the killings and abuses of the regime. The centre has also identified 19,400 mass graves and documented 167 former prisons, some of which were larger than the notorious Tuol Sleng.

The discoveries by the centre cause experts to revise upward the estimated number of victims of the Khmer Rouge from 1.7 million to 2.2-2.5 million.

In August 2001 the Cambodian Government passes legislation to set up a joint tribunal of local and international judges and prosecutors to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge for genocide.

Negotiations with the UN over the shape and scope of the tribunal have been underway for a number of years, but without any final resolution. While Cambodia wants the tribunal to be governed by domestic law and to contain a majority of Cambodia judges, the UN wants to hold the authority so that it can ensure the conduct of the tribunal meets international standards.

2002 - In February the UN pulls out of the negotiations on the genocide tribunal, saying the arrangements as conceived by the Cambodian authorities "would not guarantee the independence, objectivity and impartiality that a court established with the support of the United Nations must have".

While the Cambodian Government vows to carry on with its own trials, the US State Department and the French Foreign Ministry call for an immediate resumption of talks between the UN and Cambodia.

Only two former Khmer Rouge are being held in detention awaiting trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes - Ta Mok, the military commander who arrested Pol Pot in 1997, and Kaing Khek Iev (also known as Duch), the governor of the Tuol Sleng detention centre.

Most of the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge remain free, including Nuon Chea (also known as Long Reth), one of the members of the 'Paris student group', 'Brother Number Two', and a hard-line and unrepentant supporter of Pol Pot. The former leaders advocate the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission similar to that set up in South Africa following the end of apartheid, rather than prosecution in a genocide tribunal.

In December the UN General Assembly passes a resolution to rejuvenate negotiations on the genocide tribunal.

2003 - Talks between the UN and Cambodia on the genocide tribunal resume at the start of January. An agreement is reached on 17 March and signed by the UN on 6 June. The tribunal will be composed of both Cambodian and foreign prosecutors and judges, with a majority of Cambodians.

At the end of the year, on 30 December, Khieu Samphan becomes the first of the former Khmer Rouge leaders to acknowledge that their regime committed genocide. "There's no more doubt left," he says.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian Government unveils a multi-million dollar plan to turn Pol Pot's cremation site and its surrounds into an official "historical tourism" zone. Under the plan, dilapidated Khmer Rouge buildings at the site will be renovated and a new access road constructed from Angkor, about 120 km to the south. The project features a purpose-built memorial, museum and theatre complex to record the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime.

According to a report in the 3 September issue of 'The Sydney Morning Herald', former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Pol Pot's cook and housekeeper, are being recruited to act as tour guides, and new signs have been erected at 26 selected "historical" sites.

2004 - In January Pol Pot's 'Brother Number Two', Nuon Chea, announces that he is willing to face an international genocide tribunal in order to set the record straight.

"I admit that there was a mistake," Nuon Chea says, "But I had my ideology. I wanted to free my country. I wanted people to have wellbeing."

According to Nuon Chea, his key error was to not check up carefully on the work of the regime. "People died, but there were many causes of their deaths," he says, denying that millions perished.

On 4 October the Cambodian National Assembly unanimously ratifies the agreement with the UN to set up a genocide tribunal. The Cambodian Senate also approves the agreement. Although no timetable is set for the commencement of proceedings, the tribunal is expected to run for three years and cost US$57 million.

2005 - In April a deal is approved allowing a Japanese company to commercialise a large Khmer Rouge killing field site at Choeung Ek outside Phnom Penh. In return for an annual fee paid to Cambodian authorities the company will be allowed to charge tourists to enter the site.

Meanwhile, the establishment of a genocide tribunal comes a step closer at the end of April when UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan announces that the UN has received sufficient pledges and contributions "to fund the staffing of the extraordinary chambers and their operations for a sustained period of time".

According to the UN, donor nations have pledged more than US$40 million towards the running of the tribunal. Cambodia is expected to provide a further US$13 million, although the country later says it can only afford US$1.5 million.

On 15 August Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warns that the tribunal may not go ahead unless donor nations contribute more funds. "It has been quite a headache for me," he says. "Sometimes, I have even thought of letting it slide."

Later in August, on the 25th, the UN announces that is has appointed Michelle Lee, a Chinese national, as the chief administrator for the tribunal.

On 30 August the US provides the Documentation Centre of Cambodia with a permanent endowment of US$2 million. Interest from the endowment will be used to assist the funding of the centre.

2006 - In February it is reported that Ieng Sary, former Khmer Rouge foreign minister and 'Brother Number Three', is receiving treatment for a heart condition at a hospital in Thailand. His wife, Khieu Thirith, former Khmer Rouge minister of social affairs, is also hospitalised, for an operation on a broken hip.

Further progress is made towards the commencement of the genocide tribunal when 17 Cambodian and 12 foreign jurists are sworn in on 3 July. The swearing in is followed by a three-day workshop during which the jurists discuss the legal procedures to be used by the tribunal.

Later in July the Documentation Centre of Cambodia provides the tribunal with over 380,000 pages of incriminating Khmer Rouge documents in order to "help speed up the investigation process."

On 21 July Ta Mok, one of the two the senior Khmer Rouge cadres being held in custody on charges of genocide, eludes justice when he dies.

2007 - After much wrangling the Cambodian and international judges appointed to the genocide tribunal agree on the rules for the proceedings on 13 June. On 19 July prosecutors submit a list of five former Khmer Rouge leaders who they believe should stand trial. It is reported that those named are Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Kaing Khek Iev and Meas Muth, a son son-in-law of Ta Mok.

Noun Chea is arrested at his home in Pailin Province and flown to Phnom Penh on 19 September. He is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including "murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement and other inhumane acts."

Ieng Sary and his wife, Khieu Thirith, are arrested and charged on 12 November. Both are charged with crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary is also charged with war crimes.

Khieu Samphan is admitted to Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh on 13 November after suffering from "numbness" after falling from a hammock at his home in Pailin. He is arrested immediately after his release from the hospital on 19 November and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The tribunal gets underway the following day when a court is convened for a pretrial hearing of a bail application by Kaing Khek Iev. The application is denied.

Kaing Khek Iev is formally charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes on 12 August.

2008 - On 11 February 'The Independent' newspaper publishes an exclusive interview with Kaing Khek Iev.

"I and everyone else who worked in that place (Tuol Sleng) knew that anyone who entered had to be psychologically demolished, eliminated by steady work, given no way out," Kaing Khek Iev tells reporter Valerio Pellizzari.

"No answer could avoid death. Nobody who came to us had any chance of saving himself. ...

"It was Ta Mok who had ordered all the prisoners to be eliminated. We saw enemies, enemies, enemies everywhere. ...

"I was cornered, like everyone in that machine, I had no alternative. Pol Pot, the No. 1 Brother, said you always had to be suspicious, to fear something. And thus the usual request came: interrogate them again, interrogate them better.

"If I had tried to flee, they were holding my family hostage, and my family would have suffered the same fate as the other prisoners in Tuol Sleng. If I had fled or rebelled it would not have helped anyone."

Comment: Prince Norodom Sihanouk has summed up the character of one of the worst genocidal dictators of the 20th Century, saying, "Pol Pot is very charming. ... His face, his behaviour is very polite, but he is very, very cruel."

Others who knew him have elaborated on this description, calling Pol Pot calm, cold-blooded, extremely secretive, and above all paranoid - traits that allowed him to oversee the genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

The last word here goes again to Sihanouk.

"Pol Pot does not believe in God but he thinks that heaven, destiny, wants him to guide Cambodia in the way he thinks it the best for Cambodia, that is to say, the worst. Pol Pot is mad, you know, like Hitler."

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Jawaharlal Nehru

AKA 'Pandit' (pundit or teacher).

Country: India.

Cause: Liberation of India from British colonial rule.

Background: British occupation of India begins at the start of the 17th Century, with the 'Raj' reaching its zenith at the end of the 19th Century. Indian opposition to colonial rule gains focus in the early 20th Century as the nation unites to expel the British. More background.

Mini biography: Born of 14 November 1889 at Allahabad in northern India, into a wealthy Kashmiri Brahman family. His father is a member of the self-rule movement and a leader of the Indian National Congress Party.

1905 - Nehru studies at Harrow school in England, staying there for two years before entering Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he spends three years earning an honours degree in natural science. He qualifies as a barrister after two years at the Inner Temple, London.

1912 - Nehru returns to India and practices law in the Allahabad High Court.

1916 - He marries Kamala Kaul. Their only child, Indira Priyadarshini (Indira Gandhi), is also destined to serve as prime minister of India. Nehru meets Mahatma Gandhi for the first time at the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress Party in Lucknow.

1917 - The British Parliament announces that Indians will be allowed greater participation in the colonial administration and that self-governing institutions will be gradually developed.

1919 - The promise of self-governing institutions is realised with the passing of the Government of India Act by the British Parliament. The Act introduces a dual administration in which both elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials share power, although the British retain control of critical portfolios like finance, taxation and law and order.

However, the goodwill created by the move is undermined in March by the passing of the Rowlatt Acts. These acts empower the Indian authorities to suppress sedition by censoring the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting suspects without a warrant. Nehru now becomes closely involved in the Congress Party.

Gandhi begins a campaign of resistance or 'Satyagraha' (the devotion to truth, or truth force) against the Rowlatt Acts and British rule. The Satyagraha movement spreads through India, gaining millions of followers.

The movement is temporarily halted on 13 April when British troops fire at point-blank range into a crowd of 10,000 unarmed and unsuspecting Indians gathered at Amritsar in the Punjab to celebrate a Hindu festival. A total of 1,650 rounds are fired, killing 379 and wounding 1,137. The incident galvanises Nehru, who becomes a staunch nationalist.

1920 - Gandhi proclaims an organised campaign of noncooperation and advocates 'Ahimsa' (nonviolence) and 'Swaraj' (self-rule), particularly in the economic sphere. Nehru joins the campaign. During the year, Gandhi refashions the Congress Party from an elite organisation into an effective political instrument with widespread grassroots support. Nehru supports the reforms.

1921 - Nehru is arrested by the British and imprisoned for the first time. Over the next 24 years he will spend more than nine years in jail, with the longest of his nine detentions lasting for three years.

Nehru will occupy much of his time in prison writing. His major works will include 'Glimpses of World History' (1934), his 'Autobiography' (1936, and 'The Discovery of India' (1946).

Meanwhile, the Congress Party gives Gandhi complete executive authority. However, after a series of violent confrontations between Indian demonstrators and the British authorities, Gandhi ends the campaign of civil disobedience.

1923 - Nehru becomes general secretary of the Congress for a period of two years, attaining the position again in 1927 for another two years.

1926 - He tours Europe and the Soviet Union, where he develops an interest in Marxism.

1927 - The British set up a commission to recommend further constitutional steps towards greater self-rule but fail to appoint an Indian to the panel. In response, the Congress boycotts the commission throughout India and drafts its own constitution demanding full independence by 1930.

1929 - Under Gandhi's patronage, Nehru is elected president of the Congress at the party's Lahore session. Nehru is to serve as party president six times.

1930 - Nehru is arrested during a new campaign of civil disobedience orchestrated by Gandhi. The campaign calls upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt, and centres on a 400 km march to the sea between 12 March and 6 April.

Thousands follow Gandhi as he walks south from his commune at Ahmedabad (the capital of Gujarat) to Dandi (near Surat on the Gulf of Cambay). When they arrive they illegally make salt by evaporating seawater. In May Gandhi is arrested and held in custody for the rest of the year. About 30,000 other members of the independence movement are also held in jail.

1931 - Gandhi accepts a truce with the British, calls off civil disobedience, and travels to London to attend a 'Round Table Conference' on the future of India. On his return to India he finds that the situation has deteriorated.

1932 - Hopes that calm will prevail following the negotiations between the Indians and the British are dashed when Gandhi and Nehru are arrested. Nehru is sentenced to two years imprisonment.

1934 - When Gandhi formally resigns from politics, Nehru becomes leader of the Congress Party.

1935 - Limited self-rule is achieved when the British Parliament passes the Government of India Act (1935). The Act gives Indian provinces a system of democratic, autonomous government. However, it is only implemented after Gandhi gives his approval.

1937 - In February, after elections under the Government of India Act bring the Congress to power in seven of 11 provinces, Nehru is faced with a dilemma. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the defeated Muslim League, asks for the formation of coalition Congress-Muslim League governments in some of the provinces. His request is denied.

The subsequent clash between the Congress and the Muslim League hardens into a conflict between Hindus and Muslims that will ultimately lead to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.

1939 - When the Second World War breaks out in September Britain unilaterally declares India's participation on the side of the Allies. Nehru argues that India's place is alongside the democracies but insists that India can only fight as a free country. The Congress withdraws from government and decides it will not support the British war effort unless India is granted complete and immediate independence. The Muslim League, however, supports the British during the war.

1940 - Nehru is arrested and sentenced to four years imprisonment but is released after little more than a year, along with other Congress prisoners, three days before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Meanwhile, the Muslim League adopts the 'Pakistan Resolution' calling for areas with a Muslim majority in India's northwest and northeast to be partitioned from the Hindu core.

1942 - With Japanese forces reaching the eastern borders of India, the British attempt to negotiate with the Indians. However, Gandhi and Nehru will accept nothing less than independence and call on the British to leave the subcontinent.

When the Congress Party passes its 'Quit India' resolution in Bombay on 8 August the entire Congress Working Committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, is arrested and imprisoned. Nehru is not released from this, his ninth, last and longest period of detention, until 15 June 1945.

Also during 1942 Gandhi officially designates Nehru as his political heir.

1944 - The British Government agrees to independence for India on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress Party, resolve their differences.

1946 - Nehru, with Gandhi's blessing, is invited by the British to form an interim government to organise the transition to independence. Fearing it will be excluded from power, the Muslim League declares 16 August 'Direct Action Day'. When communal rioting breaks out in the north, partition comes to be seen as a valid alternative to the possibility of civil war. Nehru attempts to prevent partition but is unsuccessful.

1947 - On 3 June British Prime Minister Clement Attlee introduces a bill to the House of Commons calling for the independence and partition of the British Indian Empire into the separate nations of India and Pakistan. On 14 July the House of Commons passes the India Independence Act. Under the Act Pakistan is further divided into east and west wings on either side of India.

On 14 August Pakistan is declared to be independent. India formally attains its sovereignty at midnight on the same day. Amid the celebrations Nehru delivers a famous speech on India's "tryst with destiny."

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and freedom," Nehru says. "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."

However, the initial jubilation is soon tempered by violence.

Sectarian riots erupt as Muslims in India flee to Pakistan while Hindus in Pakistan flee the opposite way. As many as two million die in north India, at least 12 million become refugees, and a limited war over the incorporation of Kashmir into India breaks out between the two nation states.

Nehru becomes the first prime minister of independent India and introduces a mix of socialist planning and free enterprise measures to repair and build the country's ravaged economy. He also takes the external affairs portfolio, serving as foreign minister throughout his tenure as prime minister.

1950 - India becomes a republic with Nehru as its prime minister. He is deeply involved in the development and implementation of the country's five-year plans that over the course of the 1950s and 1960s see India become one of the most industrialised nations in the world.

Industrial complexes are established around the country, while innovations are encouraged by an expansion of scientific research. In the decade between 1951 and 1961, the national income of India rises 42%.

Nehru also pursues reforms to improve the social condition of women and the poor. The minimum marriageable age is increased from 12 to 15, women are given the right to divorce their husbands and inherit property, and the dowry system is made illegal. Absentee landlords are stripped of their land, which is then transferred to tenant farmers who can document their right to occupancy.

In foreign affairs, Nehru advocates policies of nationalism, anticolonialism, internationalism, and nonalignment or "positive neutrality". He founds the nonaligned movement with Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito and Egypt's Gamal Abdel-Nasser and becomes one of the key spokesmen of the nonaligned nations of Asia and Africa.

Nehru argues for the admission of China to the United Nations (UN) and calls for détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. Acting as a mediator, he also helps to end the Korean War of 1950-53.

1956 - India under Nehru is the only nonaligned country in the UN to vote with the Soviet Union on the invasion of Hungary, calling into question the country's nonaligned status.

1961 - Indian troops occupy the Portuguese enclave at Goa on the west coast of the country in December, removing the last remaining colonial administration on the subcontinent and ending six years of unsuccessful negotiations.

1962 - A long-standing border dispute with China breaks out into war, despite Nehru's efforts to improve relations between the two countries. When the Chinese threaten to overrun the Brahmaputra River valley on India's northern border, Nehru calls for aid from the West. China withdraws but Nehru's nonalignment policy is further discredited.

1963 - He suffers a slight stroke, followed by a more debilitating attack in January 1964.

1964 - Nehru dies in office on 27 May in New Delhi from a third and fatal stroke.

Comment: The secular and practical balance to Gandhi's spiritual idealism, Nehru was no less passionate in his pursuit of independence for India. Though often overshadowed by the Mahatma, he was no less admired. He had the cultural and intellectual credibility necessary to first attract the younger intelligentsia to Gandhi's campaigns and then rally them after independence had been gained.

Nehru's tenure as prime minister has, however, come under critical analysis. Always a democratic socialist, his five-year plans helped to establish the economic independence that Gandhi had advocated. Nehru's domestic policies were centred on democracy, socialism, unity, and secularism. Today India is one of the strongest democracies in the world and is beginning to take off as an economic power. Nehru's only child, Indira Gandhi, served as India's prime minister from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was prime minister from 1984 to 1989.

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