Report from Timor Est 2005-2010

In my physical and mental geography, every time I think back to Timor I can't help but remember that trip to that land in the now remote 2005, that was the first time I really felt the distance.
East Timor is an island south of the Indonesian archipelago and north of Australia, perhaps a fifth the size of Cuba, which, in addition to palm trees, exotic fruits and the beautiful sea, shares the hospitable and revolutionary character of its inhabitants, as well as coffee and tobacco.

I went there a couple of times over the course of five years. Fifty years have passed since the Indonesian dictatorship with the support of the West militarily occupied East Timor in 1975. However, the people of Timor with exemplary resistance obtained independence twenty-five years later: in light of recent geopolitical events, regarding their struggle, that resilience could represent a precedent for the solution of the Palestinian question.
After fighting a bloody war that lasted twenty-four years, on May 20, 2002, the Democratic Republic of East Timor joined the International Community as an independent nation.

The first time I reached it, I experienced a context where the stigmata of war were clearly visible as wounds that had not completely healed: demolished homes and widespread poverty among the rubble. The lack of infrastructure did not prevent the coming and going of the little traffic of UN vehicles and those of humanitarian organizations. I was surprised not to see fishermen.
The Catholic Church did a lot to support the population of Timor during the war years, the originally Portuguese churches and chapels were defended, but not entirely spared. I can testify to having seen religious structures such as convents and seminaries transformed into schools and oratories and orphanages scattered throughout the territory. I believe in order not to disperse the new generations, especially those young people who no longer had families. I saw many young people return to sports after years of terror.

The population did not remain indifferent and faith won: in fact, there are more than a million inhabitants of East Timor who call themselves Catholic. They told me that when Pope Wojtyla landed in East Timor in 1989, in the midst of the revolt for the country's independence, the Polish pope who loved to kiss the ground every time he went down the steps of the plane, that day refused so as not to have to recognize the Indonesian occupation.

Dili, despite being little more than a town, is in fact its capital, beautiful and decadent in its typical colonial style, several kilometers away from the other inhabited centers which in truth are all inconvenient to reach, at least at the time when there were still no roads.

In my Jeep there was Don Carbonel, a missionary from Jakarta who agreed to follow us as a political-bureaucratic mediator: "Father, tell me," I asked him during a long transfer, "I don't understand why the people we met insist on living along the innermost roads, or on the hills down there inland...
If they settled near the coast they could enjoy fishing, palm trees and the sea, don't you think?".
"Listen to me," he said, "they would gladly give you all the oysters, lobsters and swordfish you want in exchange for a chicken or even just one egg!".
The fact is that since the war ended they prefer to eat meat, because there is little meat on the island, but in reality they stay on the hills because up there above the rice fields they feel safe and protected.

Industry is a very underdeveloped sector: I documented a brand new bulldozer abandoned in a riverbed only because there was no mechanic capable of changing a screw and Caterpillar did not provide assistance on the island.
East Timor has fertile soil, arable land and a century-old history of coffee and tobacco, but analysts who recommend this path to revive the country's struggling economy are summarily hindered by those who have benefited from the riches of the subsoil: oil and gas, first and foremost, which represent 85% of the state's revenue.
East Timor is probably one of the last earthly paradises, today a destination for exclusive tourism that will never be mass, and it is a shame for the local labor market that could offer plenty of employment, even in industry and agriculture if the population were adequately trained. In the meantime, the fishermen have finally returned.

Luca Periotto
NP PLUS
NP January 2025