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Loro Munu refers to the western part of East Timor. In the past, the name was used for the western part of the island of Timor, as "Loro Munu" means setting sun or simply west.
The inhabitants of Loro Munu are called Kaladi regardless of their other ethnic affiliation. In contrast, the eastern part of the country is called Loro Sae and its inhabitants Firaku. As a melting pot of the country's various ethnicities and groups, the state capital Dili is the scene of regular street fights between gangs from the east and west.
The name Kaladi for the western East Timorese is probably derived from the Portuguese calado (quiet, silent). Governor Luís Augusto de Almeida Macedo reports in his diary how Chinese traders sold forbidden goods, possibly weapons, to the Callady in the mountains. His successor Afonso de Castro calls the language of the inhabitants in the mountains around Dili Calado. [1] The inhabitants of Loro Munu were said to be somewhat "slow and quiet" and far less rebellious than Loro Sae. Another theory assumes that Kaladi was a self-designation of the Mambai people, which was later adopted in the Tetum as the name for all inhabitants of the mountains in the centre of Timor.
Loro Munu consists of the municipalities of Dili, Aileu, Ainaro, Manufahi, Ermera, Bobonaro, Cova Lima, Liquiçá and the special administrative region of Oe-Cusse Ambeno. Sometimes the municipality of Manatuto is also counted as part of the west.
Despite the strong national movement from which the country emerged, the unrest of 2006 has once again brought to the fore the division of the country into eastern and western parts, which existed before the colonial era and has a clear influence on everyday life in East Timor. The centre of the island of Timor was dominated on both sides of the current border by the Wehale Kingdom and its centre Laran. There were only loose ties with the east. The east may also have been subject to tribute from Wehale. When the island was finally divided between Portugal and the Netherlands, Wehale's power collapsed. While Laran sided with the Netherlands, several rulers who had previously been dependent on him decided in favour of an alliance with the Portuguese. These territories now formed the colony of Portuguese Timor together with the eastern territories.
Although there were always internal disputes, these were usually only short tribal wars rather than protracted conflicts. The division between East and West was of secondary importance and was mostly masked by political interests. In the civil war of 1975, for example, the front between Fretilin and UDT cut across the regions and ethnic groups. But as early as 1975, the Fretilin politician Mau Lear warned of the tensions between the two parts of East Timor in his treatise "The Establishment of New Relations in East Timor". [2] [3] After liberation from the Indonesian occupation, the weak division developed into a clear dividing line. The Firaku claim to have carried out the greater part of the resistance against the Indonesians.
The Firaku accuse the Kaladi of sympathising with the occupying forces during the Indonesian occupation. Many of the police recruited by the Indonesians were Kaladi. The United Nations and the independent East Timor have taken most of these police officers into their service. The smouldering conflict between the police and the military, which is dominated by Firaku, is a result of this.
Today, a political division of the country is also noticeable. In the east, the left-wing old independence party Fretilin still dominates, while in the west, the ruling party National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) is in the lead.
West Timor is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno. Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The capital as well as its main port is Kupang. During the colonial period, the area was named Dutch Timor and was a centre of Dutch loyalists during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949). From 1949 to 1975 it was named Indonesian Timor.
Portuguese Timor was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies.
Tetum is an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Timor. It is one of the official languages of Timor-Leste and it is also spoken in Belu Regency and in Indonesian West Timor.
East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor and the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco. The first inhabitants are thought to be descendant of Australoid and Melanesian peoples. The Portuguese began to trade with Timor by the early 16th century and colonised it throughout the mid-century. Skirmishing with the Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty for which Portugal ceded the western half of the island. Imperial Japan occupied East Timor during World War II, but Portugal resumed colonial authority after the Japanese surrender.
Atauro, also known as Kambing Island, is an island and municipality of East Timor. Atauro is a small oceanic island situated north of Dili, on the extinct Wetar segment of the volcanic Inner Banda Arc, between the Indonesian islands of Alor and Wetar. The nearest island is the Indonesian island of Liran, 13.0 km (8.1 mi) to the northeast. At the 2015 census, it had 9,274 inhabitants.
The National University of East Timor, is a public university in East Timor, the only one of its kind in the country.
East Timor was a de facto province of Indonesia that existed between 1976 and 1999 during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. Its territory corresponded to the previous Portuguese Timor and to the present-day independent country of Timor-Leste.
Pante Macassar is a city in the Pante Macassar administrative post on the north coast of East Timor, 152 kilometres or 94 miles to the west of Dili, the nation's capital. It has a population of 4,730. It is the capital of the Oecusse exclave.
The Kemak people are an ethnic group numbering 80,000 in north-central Timor island. They primarily live in the district of Bobonaro, East Timor, while the rest live in the East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia.
The Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor originally began as the military wing of the Fretilin party of East Timor. It was established on 20 August 1975 in response to Fretilin's political conflict with the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT).
The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus, began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin regime that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and short-lived Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation in which approximately 100,000–180,000 soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed or starved to death. The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documented a minimum estimate of 102,000 conflict-related deaths in East Timor throughout the entire period from 1974 to 1999, including 18,600 violent killings and 84,200 deaths from disease and starvation; Indonesian forces and their auxiliaries combined were responsible for 70% of the killings.
Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 30 June 2007. The new composition of East Timor's national parliament was determined by the country's population. 529,198 voters were entitled to vote, 708 polling stations were ready.
The Indonesian occupation of East Timor began in December 1975 and lasted until October 1999. After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal led to the decolonisation of its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain. After a small-scale civil war, the pro-independence Fretilin declared victory in the capital city of Dili and declared an independent East Timor on 28 November 1975.
East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor - of which the western half is administered by Indonesia - the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-western half, and the minor islands of Atauro and Jaco. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is 14,874 square kilometres (5,743 sq mi). Dili is its capital and largest city.
Adaljiza Albertina Xavier Reis Magno is an East Timorese politician and diplomat, and a member of the Fretilin political party.
Chinese people in East Timor consist of Chinese migrants to East Timor and their descendants. The Chinese minority is a small proportion of the East Timorese population and most are Hakka and a small number of Cantonese within the populace. Many Chinese left during the mid-1970s.
The 1959 Viqueque rebellion was an uprising against the Portuguese rule in the southeastern part of East Timor. It was concentrated in the remote regions of Uatolari and Uatocarbau. It was an anti-colonial rebellion against the Portuguese, who had been the colonial masters of East Timor since the sixteenth century. The rebellion is significant in East Timorese history because it was the only rebellion that erupted after World War II. For the longest time, due to lack of information and research, there were speculations and assumptions made about the origins of the rebellion which focus more on external factors, like the role of Indonesia. However, in the last decade, there has been more research done that has helped to illuminate this part of East Timor's history and it has also highlighted the agency of the East Timorese for participating in the rebellion.
Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres is an East Timorese academic and politician, and a member of the Fretilin political party. From September 2017 to June 2018, he was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the VII Constitutional Government of East Timor led by Mari Alkatiri.
Loro Sae is the name of the eastern part of East Timor. This leads to confusion, as the official name of the country in the official language Tetum is "Timór Loro Sa'e". Loro Sae means rising sun or simply east. The inhabitants of Loro Sae are called Firaku, regardless of their other ethnic affiliations. In contrast, the western part of the country is called Loro Munu and its inhabitants Kaladi. The country's capital, Dili, is a melting pot of the country's different ethnic groups and is the scene of regular street fights between gangs from the east and the west.