What animals live in East Timor? The special geographical location of the state of East Timor is decisive for the animal and plant world of the country. Since East Timor is on the Wallace Line, both Asian and Australian species are common. The Australian animal world includes the gray cuscus, a climbing bag. It is predominantly nocturnal and, thanks to its climbing ability, gets along well in the tree-rich areas of East Timor. In the forests there are also some…
Timor-Leste is a diverse country that has retained its originality in many places. Its cultural and scenic charms inspire again and again. In recent years, a tourist infrastructure has slowly developed in the country. Eco-tourism is playing an increasingly important role in this. On the island of Atauro, communities have organized themselves in the Grupu Turizmu Ataúro. The first tour operators in Germany have included Timor-Leste in their program. There are special offers for diving, hiking and trekking tours. The…
Currency: U.S. dollar Exchange rate: € 1 = US $ 1.13 (July 2020) Time zone: CET +8 Country code (phone): +670 Climate (for capital): tropical, hot all year round Money The national currency of Timor-Leste is the US dollar. There are also East Timorese coins in circulation, the centavos, which are used according to the cent. Timor-Leste’s central bank, the Banco Central de Timor-Leste, emerged by law on September 13, 2011 from the Bank Payment Authority (BPA, established in 2001…
Entry COVID-19 pandemic The government’s early intervention largely prevented a corona outbreak in Timor-Leste. After the first infections were detected on March 21, 2020, the government declared a state of emergency and ordered a lockdown. So far, Timor-Leste has 31 infected people, all of whom have recovered. Timor-Leste is one of the 10 countries in the world that have effectively contained the virus. To prevent the spread of Corona, the government ceased air traffic on April 4, 2020 and closed…
In a regional and international comparison, women havein Timor-Leste relatively good access to political office. Thanks to a quota system – every third candidate on every list must be female – East Timor’s parliament has 38 percent women. Women also head several ministries. The picture is very different at community and village level, where traditions are still very strong: of the 442 villages (Suco, smallest administrative unit) and 2,225 village communities (Aldeias), only 2% are run by women. A new…
With a few exceptions, the cultures in Timor-Leste are patrilinear, and this is reflected in a patriarchal social structure: the man is the focus of social interest, women are considered to be of little importance and their space is settled in the private. At marriage, the bride is officially handed over to the house of her husband’s family through a gift exchange (called ‘Barlake’ in Timor-Leste). According to Western understanding, this is often referred to as the dowry or bride…
At the time of the Portuguese colonial rule, the education system in East Timor was a completely neglected area in terms of broad education. The illiteracy rate was 95-98%. Basically, education was only offered to the elite. The Catholic Church and religious orders were responsible for education. The Mission in Soibada, founded in 1988 by the Jesuits and the Canossian Sisters, established the first boarding schools for boys in 1904 and for girls in 1910 a. The children of the…
According to militarynous, 97.6% of East Timorese are Catholic. The church is the most influential organization in Timor-Leste. Numerous religious orders have been active on the island for centuries. The best known are Salesians, Jesuits, Carmelites and the Canossian nuns. Church and order have a network of social services, they maintain schools and training centers, health stations and orphanages. You are committed to overcoming structures of violence in order to build a society capable of peace. During the Portuguese colonial…
Time and time again, outsiders are amazed by the ethnic and, associated with it, linguistic and cultural diversity in Timor-Leste. The same applies in Timor: we learn our identity from culture (husi cultura ita hatene ita nia identidade). In the course of various migrations from around 40,000 BC BC, different paths seem to have crossed on Timor: in addition to Malay and Melanesian influences, there are also Papua-dominated ethnic groups and influences of the Australian Aborigines. Influences from Portugal and…
State cooperation Since the UN interim administration in 1999, Timor-Leste has received funding from Germany within the framework of thematic and regional programs. German development cooperation on site is carried out on behalf of the BMZ by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), KfW and integrated CIM consultants. At the beginning the support focused on emergency and refugee aid, food security and drinking water supply and then went on to a nationwide project in cooperation with the European Union (EU)…
Almost all well-known international development cooperation organizations are and were represented in Timor-Leste – as a result of the UN interim administration and UN mission, in particular numerous UN organizations (UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNIFEM, etc.) as well as FAO, World Bank and Asian Development Bank ADB. In March 2017, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved Timor-Leste’s membership application. The United Nations Refugee Agency was able to cease its activities in Timor-Leste in January 2012. The country had overcome…
East Timor’s wealth is the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea south of the country and north of Australia. After initial controversy, the governments of Timor-Leste and Australia had initially agreed on a Joint Development Area. On January 12, 2006, the two countries agreed in the CMATS contract to share the profits from the oil and gas deposits in the Greater Sun Rise Area 50:50 and not to touch the disputed point on the course of the maritime…
Half of the per capita income minus oil and gas revenues comes from government grants and investments. The country recorded a high growth rate of 7.8% in 2012. This was accompanied by a high inflation rate of 10.9%, which was reduced to around 2% in the following years from 2014 onwards. According to the World Bank, the growth rate for gross domestic product is 4.1% in 2019. A sustainable private sector has not yet emerged. The largest client is the…
Because modernization is crucial to the development of the country. The Timor-Leste development plan for 2011 to 2030 sets ambitious goals for this purpose: commercial smallholders use modern agricultural production techniques to generate a food supply that is greater than demand. Surplus is exported. But so far there is no clear agricultural policy. According to the analysis, there is hardly any agreement among the many actors involved as to how the goals are to be achieved of the Asian Institute…
Half of the people live below the poverty line. The donor community generously supports Timor-Leste and the government has taken the country’s economic and social development as its main theme. The fight against poverty and corruption, the promotion of rural development, investments in the expansion of infrastructure and the health system are the key to this. Estimated GDP: $ 3.15 billion (2019) Per capita income (purchasing power parity): US $ 2,422 (2019) Human Development Rank (HDI): Rank 131 out of…
For Timor-Leste, membership in the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP, Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) is of fundamental importance. In 2014, the country hosted the 10th Conference of Heads of State of the CPLP and held the presidency until October 2016. Since 2003 it has belonged to the movement of the non-aligned states. In the same year it joined the European Union’s ACP partnership agreement. Timor-Leste was accepted into the ASEAN Region Forum (ARF) in July 2005. Since 2010…
The price of independence was great, and the expectations of a Timor Leste with “Unidade, Paz no Justisia” – unity, peace and justice were accordingly high. But independence initially did not bring stability. Building a democratic state takes time, especially since Timor-Leste could not fall back on experience. The United Nations provided obstetrics, but with independence, the infrastructure for a functioning state was inadequate. Criticism is also leveled at the fact that government institutions have little relation to the real…
In the 2017 presidential elections, with the support of Xanana Gusmão and his CNRT party, Francisco Lú-Olo Guterres from the Fretilin won with almost 60% of the vote. The former guerrilla commander and former parliamentary president Guterres belongs to the generation of independence fighters from 1975. The parliamentary elections confirmed the government of national unity. But while Fretilin was able to maintain its result of the previous election with 29.7% (23 seats in the 65-member parliament), CNRT only got 29.5%…
After independence, Timor-Leste was initially considered one of the most successful UN interventions. But the UN’s model child slid into serious crises. Poverty and sluggish economic development fuel frustration and lead to social conflict. Half of the country’s 1.2 million people are under 19 and unemployment among young adults is very high. Some of the young adults organize themselves in gangs or participate in martial arts groups. With the groups, it is about patronage networks that are also intertwined with…
Dealing with the burdened past: truth, reconciliation, law enforcement Serious human rights violations were committed in East Timor during the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999). With the establishment of the UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor) in October 1999, the United Nations Security Council (UN) demanded that those responsible for the violence should be brought to justice. To avert an international tribunal, Indonesia set up an ad hoc human rights court in Jakarta, and UNTAET established a special court and…
Timor-Leste has ratified key human rights treaties since independence. Difficulties in implementation and institutional anchoring are due to development-policy obstacles (in the area of economic, social and cultural rights) and a lack of knowledge of international legal norms. According to dentistrymyth, Timor-Leste is a secular state and the government broadly respects freedom of religion. The main human rights problems included: corruption, violence against women and forced child labor. Central problems are the policy of impunity in dealing with the troubled…
Timor-Leste is in the transition from a violent conflict to a stable peace process and nation building. The country is one of the least developed countries (LDC). The social situation is characterized by structural poverty and lasting traumatic experiences from the past. Since the crisis years 2006 – 2008, the fragility of the state has given way to robust stability. The government of Xanana Gusmão (2007-2017) was able to tackle pressing problems and conflicts effectively. With the help of the…
The Constitution of Timor-Leste guarantees freedom of the press and freedom of expression. In the ranking of press freedom (as of April 2020), the country moved up to 78th place (2017: 98; 2019: 85) out of a total of 180 countries. Well-balanced reporting is an important factor in last year’s elections. The progress that Timor-Leste is making shows that the freedom of journalists to work without fear of harassment or reprisals is important for the development of a democratic society….
The young state between Indonesia and Australia may have oil and gas reserves, but it is one of the least developed countries. The capital Dili is cosmopolitan. A social upheaval is also noticeable in rural areas, which are determined by subsistence farming. Country Overview According to computerannals, the Indonesian occupation of the country ended in 1999 with a referendum carried out by the United Nations, in which 78.5% of East Timorese voted for independence. The 24 year long conflict cost…
Conflict resolution through the United Nations The turning point came when the Asian crisis collapsed Indonesia’s mirage of economic growth and political stability like a house of cards. The forced resignation of dictator Suharto in May 1998 paved the way for a political solution to the conflict. In January 1999, President BJ Habibie announced a referendum on the approval or rejection of a far-reaching autonomy of Indonesia. Under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), Indonesia and Portugal agreed to…
Decolonization and civil war Within the Portuguese colonial empire, East Timor was considered a sleepy outpost at the end of the world, where time stood still. It was one of the poorest areas in the world and showed all of the classic economic and political symptoms of colonial mismanagement. Portugal had not invested in economic development, schooling or health. In 1974 the Carnation Revolution put an end to the dictatorship in Portugal and paved the way for decolonization the “overseas…
The governor Lopes de Lima reached a formal agreement on the division of the island into an east and a west part in 1851. In financial distress he left the Netherlands for the allocation of the Maubara area to the Portuguese part of Timor and the sum of 200,000 florins Portugal’s claim to Flores, Solor, Alor and Pantar. In Lisbon it fell out of favor, but negotiations between the two colonial states resulted in a treaty with almost identical content…
National Symbols Flag The national flag of Timor-Leste shows two overlapping isosceles triangles with a star. Yellow stands for the traces of the colonial era, black for the obstacles that have to be overcome, red for national liberation and white for peace. The star points the light into a better future. The flag was first used by the FRETILIN party when they unilaterally declared the independence of the Portuguese Timor colony and the Democratic Republic of East Timor on November…
East Timor is about the size of Schleswig-Holstein and lies in the coral triangle of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, the most biodiverse marine region in the world. Charming coastal landscapes with mangroves and palm trees, eucalyptus and acacia forests, coffee plantations and an untouched, rugged mountain landscape characterize the natural area of the state, which has around 1.3 million residents. Country overview Official name: Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Area: 14.874 km² Residents: 1.38 million (2020, estimate) Growth of population: 2.1% pa…
The island of Timor is the largest of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is located at the eastern end of the Malay Archipelago (now also known as the Indonesian Archipelago). The independent eastern part of the island covers 14.874 km², including the offshore islands Atauro and Jaco, as well as the enclave Oecussi in the western part of the island, which belongs to Indonesia. In terms of area, Timor-Leste is about the same size as Schleswig-Holstein. The Timor Sea extends…