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Dili District
. Ho lia-Tetun
With a population of just over 100,000 people [1], Dili is a small coastal city that faces north directly out to Ataśro island and the two Indonesian islands of Wetar and Alor. The eastern end of the bay is dominated by 'Christo Rei', a massive cliff-top mounted statue of Christ sitting on a globe of the world. The western end of the bay gives way to small coves and rocky beaches while the city's backdrop is dominated by rearing mountains that lead to the nation's central highlands.
Building on research undertaken through the Globalism Institute's Community Sustainability and Sources of Insecurity research programs, Dili has been chosen as a research site within the Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT University. The task of the Global Cities Institute is to conduct multi-disciplinary and community-engaged research into the processes of change, both positive and problematic, in order to project sustainable ways of living in a range of cities across the Asia-Pacific.
This research will take place in Dili at a time of enormous challenge and change. Dili today faces many of the problems of other cities; urban drift, unemployment, crime, inadequate planning, poor infrastructure and service delivery. These problems have been tremendously exacerbated by war and civil unrest which have had a devastating effect on the social and material infrastructure of the city.
Dili became the capital of Portuguese Timor in 1769, making the port area the centre of power for Portuguese colonial activities. Following the Japanese occupation during World War II the Portuguese resumed their control of the territory and continued their rule up until the early 1970s. As a consequence of the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon in April 1974, the Portuguese finally began to withdraw from Timor, leaving the way open for a growing nationalist movement to move towards self-rule.
Following a short civil war between contending political groupings within Timor-Leste in August 1975, the Indonesian military invaded the following December. Dili was once again used as the capital of the territory, which was then named Timor Timur (commonly known as 'Tim Tim'), and Dili would again be the site in which the new colonial forces would concentrate their power. By 1999 the attempt to integrate the territory into the nation of Indonesia as its 27th province had completely failed, demonstrated especially by the overwhelming vote for independence on 30 August 1999 by the territory's population. The violent withdrawal of the Indonesian armed forces and militia in 1999 left much of the material infrastructure of Dili destroyed and emptied almost entirely of its population.
In the aftermath of this destruction, Dili continued to maintain its status as the capital under the United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor, a status that has continued since full national independence was obtained in May 2002. The impact of the international presence over this period has been dramatic. The city often has the sense of being a metropolitan bubble which is separated in significant ways both culturally and materially from the remainder of the nation. Many attempts to materially rehabilitate the city have led to the restoration of a variety of buildings, especially Portuguese-era buildings with their arches and Mediterranean colours, as well many of the modernist bureaucratic structures constructed during the Indonesian occupation. Yet many buildings remain destroyed from 1999, while a great many of the city's population live in basic housing comprised of timber and corrugated iron. These past layers of destruction have been added to since, with the burning of a variety of buildings in 2002 and then with the widespread destruction in 2006.
Drawing on the complexity of social life in Dili, with traditional and modern social formations cross-cutting one another and with the wide variety of socio-cultural influences and pressures, the research under the auspice of the Global Cities Institute will seek to understand not only the challenges that Dili faces as city, but also the relation between the capital and the remainder of the nation.
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[1] This is only an approximate figure. Based on the 2004 census, the actual population of the District of Dili is 175,000, though this figure includes the populations for the sub-districts of Metinaro, Atauro as well as Christo Rei. The figure of 120,000 may be more accurate if based the three subdistricts of Dom Aleixo, Nain Feto and Vera Cruz are considered to make up the area that people typically mean when they speak of Dili as a distinct place. However with the widespread internal displacement triggered by the socio-political crisis in 2006, this figure may have substantially changed.
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