In August 1975, one of those political parties, the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) staged a coup against the Portuguese administration, prompting the outbreak of a three-month civil war, with many UDT politicians and supporters fleeing across the border to West Timor in Indonesia, where they were required to sign a petition calling for East Timor's incorporation into Indonesia. As a result of the conflict, Lemos Pires ordered the withdrawal of the Portuguese administration to the island of Atauro, off Dili. With opinion at home becoming increasingly detached from political developments in Timor, and more concerned with decolonisation in its African colonies of Angola and Mozambique than with Timor, Lemos Pires' attempts to broker an agreement between the UDT and the other prominent Timorese party, FRETILIN, were undermined, even while he insisted that he was awaiting instructions from the government in Lisbon.