Dili, East Timor

Dili is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, sometimes known as East Timor, the eastern half of the island of Timor, located in the vast Indonesian archipelago in southeastern Asia. In 2002 it gained its status as the capital of one of the world's newest nations, after a lengthy and violent conflict with Indonesia, which forcibly took it over in 1975. Timor-Leste remains one of the poorest countries in the region, and while it has made progress since attaining independence, it is still heavily reliant on international economic and military assistance. Dili, as the political and economic center, has an essential role to play in the country's future development.

Landscape

Dili is positioned on the northern coast of the island of Timor, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, along the Ombai Strait, which connects the Savu and Banda seas. The coastal plain along the city's northern edge and west and east of the city is dominated by beaches. Dili is the country's largest settlement.

Most of Dili was destroyed by Indonesian militias in 1999, but houses and businesses have since been rebuilt, largely with international funds. The rebuilding and new influx of businesses has begun transforming Dili from a small, quiet port city to the capital of an independent country.

The waterfront remains a major focus of activity for Dili's citizens. Fishermen sell their catch there daily, and the area is a popular public park in addition to offering port services.

Dili has a tropical climate characterized by warm, humid weather. The rainy season occurs between December and March, with little precipitation outside of those months. The annual temperature averages 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit).

People

The population of Timor-Leste has undergone radical changes since 1975, the year that the Indonesian military invaded and annexed the eastern half of the island. During the occupation, an estimated 200,000 Timorese (roughly a third of the island's population) were killed. Indonesians from other islands were also relocated to East Timor from 1980 onward, with the goal of diluting the island's distinctive culture and quelling the separatist movement.

Dili was frequently a center of conflict between Timorese rebels and the Indonesian military, and in 1999, numerous refugees from the city were forced over the border into West Timor. According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2018, the population of Dili was 281,000. During and after the conflict with Indonesia, numerous East Timorese were settled in camps for internally displaced persons inside and on the outskirts of Dili.

Timor-Leste has a diverse population, but the majority are descendants of the Tetum, who belong to the broader Austronesian ethnic group. Tetum form the majority in Dili, but there are also small populations of Europeans, East Asians, and Arabs. Despite the unified effort that the Timorese put into their independence movement, ethnic strife has broken out since the country gained independent status. In Dili, tension exists between ethnic groups from the west and the east of the island.

The Portuguese maintained control of Timor-Leste for over four centuries and left an indelible mark on the island's culture. Since independence, Tetum, an Austronesian language, and Portuguese have been the two official languages of Timor-Leste, while English and Bahasa Indonesian are designated as working languages.

Both Portuguese and Tetum are considered significant identity markers for the Timorese. First Portuguese and then Tetum were incorporated into Catholic prayer services during the occupation in order to protect the languages and differentiate the population from the occupiers. Few in Dili speak Portuguese, but centuries of colonization led to the development of Tetum Prasa, a pidgin that incorporates numerous loan words from Portuguese and is only spoken in the capital and its environs. Bahasa Indonesian is also commonly spoken, given that its use was enforced during the occupation.

Dili (and Timor-Leste in general) is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, another influence derived from the colonial period. Islam and Hinduism, the dominant religions in Indonesia, do not have many adherents in Timor-Leste.

Military personnel from several nations have been based in Dili since 1999. Even after the end of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission, troops from Australia and New Zealand were called in to help restore calm after incidences of ethnic strife.

Economy

Timor-Leste first attracted the attention of Portugal because of its natural resources, particularly sandalwood and spices, and Dili became an important trading post beginning around 1512. It lost even this slight economic advantage in the 1920s, however, and remained overall an impoverished settlement, with little investment having been put into its infrastructure. During the occupation by Indonesia, it was dependent entirely on the central government. Lack of employment has been a persistent problem in the capital.

Since its near-total destruction by the Indonesian military in 1999, Dili has attracted billions of dollars in international aid. Most of the aid has been used to rebuild damaged infrastructure, both in the capital and beyond. Dili now serves as the country's major service employer and provider for trade, banking, and public administration.

Timor-Leste's economic fortunes have improved with the development of oil and natural gas resources, which now provides some 90 percent of government revenues. In 2005 the government created the Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund, which had assets of $16.9 billion as of 2023—more than twice the country's annual GDP. This resource wealth has been directed into infrastructure development, but the government has yet to develop a plan for poverty reduction.

A number of factories operate in Dili. Coffee is one of the country's most important agricultural crops, and in Dili some of the crops are processed for export.

Landmarks

Few buildings in Dili survived the destruction of 1999. Among them were the Portuguese garrison, built in 1627, and another building dating from the Portuguese era that serves as the offices of the national government.

Evidence of Timor-Leste's Catholicism is abundant in Dili, as the city is home to numerous churches, including one on the waterfront, which served as a focal point for resistance during the occupation. Built during the Portuguese era, it is known as the Church of San Antonio de Motael. A massive statue of Christ also overlooks Dili from atop a nearby headland.

One major landmark that speaks to the city's grim history of violence and oppression is the Santa Cruz Cemetery. It was there in 1991 that Indonesian troops fired on a peaceful protest, killing as many as several hundred people.

Dili's National University of East Timor opened in 2000. It is one of the few institutions of higher education on the island.

History

Portuguese and Dutch traders first established contact with the inhabitants of the island of Timor in the sixteenth century. As they began to exploit the island's natural resources in the following century, Dili grew in importance as a trading post. The settlement and all of East Timor fell under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese after 1906, when the two colonial powers negotiated the contemporary border.

The Portuguese colonial administration neglected East Timor yet maintained control of it until 1975, except for a period during which Japan occupied the island in World War II. East Timor's independence came suddenly, largely as a result of Portugal's rapid decolonization of its holdings around the world, beginning in 1974. Dili became the center of the push for independence, and in 1975, the Timorese Democratic Union Party took control of the eastern half of the island but planned to maintain close ties to Portugal. However, the regime was soon challenged by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, which seized power and declared East Timor's full independence.

At the end of 1975, Indonesian forces invaded East Timor and carried out a brutal repression of the independence movement, declaring the eastern half of the island part of Indonesia the following year. Though the violence lessened after 1979, Indonesia's central government still maintained its policy of political repression and kept the eastern portion of the island cut off from nearly all outside influence; guerilla actions against the occupation also continued. Some infrastructure projects were undertaken in Dili during this period, as the central government sought to appease the local population.

The Santa Cruz or Dili Massacre of 1991, which was caught on film by a British journalist, was instrumental in reenergizing the Timorese movement for independence and calling international attention to Indonesia's brutal repression.

After the fall of Indonesian president Suharto in 1998, a concerted effort to reach a resolution over the issue of East Timor occurred. A referendum on its future was held in 1999, and the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. The vote incurred the wrath of pro-Indonesia militias supported by the Indonesian military, and widespread violence and destruction engulfed the eastern half of the island. A month later, UN-backed peacekeeping troops arrived to restore order.

Dili was the seat of successive UN programs designed to help build a country from scratch. In 2002, Timor-Leste, with its capital at Dili, officially became independent. Since then, relations with Indonesia have improved, but independence has proven difficult. In 2006, ethnic strife broke out in Dili again, sparked by tensions between different Timorese groups represented in the national military. As a result, the government was forced to call in foreign peacekeeping forces to restore calm to the capital. An attempted rebellion in 2008 was unsuccessful. In 2012, UN forces left the country, and elections were successfully held.

Bibliography

Benner, Thorsten, Stephen Mergenthaler, and Philipp Rotmann. The New World of UN Peace Operations: Learning to Build Peace? New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

Bertrand, Jacques. Political Change in Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.

Molnar, Andrea Katalin. Timor Leste: Politics, History, and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.

Peake, Gordon. Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles, and Secrets from Timor-Leste. Brunswick: Scribe, 2013. Print.

"Timor-Leste." United States Agency International Development, 2022, www.usaid.gov/timor-leste. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024.

"Timor-Leste." World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency, 21 Feb. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/timor-leste/#people-and-society. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024.