East Timor

April 2003 - July 2005

East Timor was Sean's 5th assignment and the 2nd post for us as a family.  No idea where in the world Timor is? That's not surprising because East Timor is the world's newest country in 2002.  Sean was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Timor and involved with numerous projects and issues that required him to spend many hours away from his family.  Cheech worked at the Financial Management section and organized the new Embassy's financial operations.

After being colonized by the Portuguese for several hundred years, East Timor gained its independence from Portugal on 28 November 1975.  East Timor's society was very divided and conflict broke out among the parties. Fearing a communist takeover of the island, Indonesia invaded the island and called it the 27th province.

East Timor won its independence a second time in 1999 after approximately 25 years of Indonesian rule. Between 1975 and 1999, an estimated 250,000 Timorese lost their lives to war and famine. A UN supervised referendum was held in 1999 and nearly 90 percent of the people voted for Independence. Indonesian-backed militias then ravaged the country, destroying approximately 80 percent of the nation's infrastructure and killing, maiming, and such.

East Timor has 850,000 population. Dili, with a population of 60,000 is the capital and largest city.  More than 90 percent of the people are Roman Catholic, although many, especially in the countryside mix the religion with animist beliefs.  The primary languages are: Tetum, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese, Fataluku, and Makassai.

Map of East Timor (see the highlight on the map below)