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East Timor: Independence
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East Timor is a state-like region, consisting of the eastern half of the island of Timor. Its capital is Dili. From the 16th century onwards it was a Portuguese colony. In November 1975 its independence was declared, and on December 2 Indonesian forces invaded East Timor. During the invasion mass killings and rapings took place. By mid-Febuary 60,000 Timorese were dead.
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In the last couple of years, media coverage of East Timor has grown in some news outlets. This is largely due to the November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, the capital of East Timor. In the presence of Western journalists, the Indonesian army fired upon a peaceful crowd gathered at a cemetery for the memorial service of a young pro-independence activist slain by the military two weeks earlier. Over 200 people died as a result.
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On August 30, 1999, the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Indonesia (whose control of the region had begun shortly after the exit of colonial administrators in 1975). This historic vote was followed by violence and destruction committed by pro-integrationist Timorese militias with the support of factions within the Indonesian Army. East Timor has now begun to rebuild its devastated public infrastructure and develop democratic political institutions.
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Although East Timor was not yet a member of the ADB during the pre-independence period, it was eligible to receive ADB technical assistance grants. Since 2000, ADB has approved 19 technical assistance projects for East Timor, amounting to $8 million from grant funds. Such projects were for project preparation, capacity building, and policy advice in key sectors and for economic management.
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On the other-side-of-the-coin, due to the violence that took place during East Timor's struggle for independence, much of the infrastructure was destroyed. It is slowly being rebuilt ... electricity, telephones, roads and lodging is somewhat unreliable.
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While it has made significant progress in building an institutional framework to support economic development and promote macroeconomic stability, East Timor’s economic performance since independence has been fragile. Growth contracted following the reduced international presence after 2002, before increasing in 2004 (0.3%) and 2005 (2.3%). The economy contracted sharply again in 2006 (-2.9%) following the violence of that year. UNMIT’s establishment and the return of a significant number of international personnel to East Timor is expected to underwrite a higher growth rate for 2007. A spike in CPI inflation saw it approach 7 per cent by end-2006.
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