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Eric Fichtl

Timor-Leste

<p>A group of kids very amused to have their picture taken. <br /></p><p>Part of the graffiti reads 'Das dores boavida', which can translate as 'From pain, a good life'.<br /></p>
<p>A quiet afternoon at the market in the highland town of Ossu.<br /></p> <p>The rustic structure features a functional vaulted roof covering the main trading area (useful given the torrential rainfall in the country) with a facade that mixes shapes from vernacular local architecture with a tinge of art deco, fashionable with the then-colonial ruler.</p>
<p>A small crowd watches their neighbours playing football, somewhere in Timor-Leste's east. </p>
<p>In Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery, a large cross commemorates the victims of the 1991 massacre by Indonesian security forces. On 12 November, a large crowd including many high school students marched to the cemetery in a funeral procession for a young activist killed by Indonesian forces two weeks earlier. Soldiers opened fire on the crowds, killing over 200 people at the cemetery and in the streets and hospitals after the march.</p> <p>The Santa Cruz massacre was a turning point, ramping up Timorese resistance to Indonesia's annexation of the former Portuguese colony. Smuggled footage of the massacre increased pressure on Jakarta from the international community, but brutal years still laid ahead. A long and ugly guerrilla war eventually led to Indonesia's withdrawal in 1999, a UN-administered transitional period, and Timor-Leste's independence in 2002. </p> <p>Studies suggest more than 200,000 Timorese were killed during the 24 years of Indonesia's occupation – a staggering figure made all the more disturbing when one considers that Timor-Leste's total population in 1975 was only 630,000 people.</p>
<p>A view of the fast-changing rainy season weather, somewhere in the Timorese central highlands.</p>
<p>A wave looms during afternoon showers in the waters off Jaco. </p>
<p>Weathered graves in Timor-Leste's central highlands.</p>
<p>Jungle meets sea along a stretch of the almost untouched coastline of Timor-Leste's far east, between Com and Jaco.</p>
<p>A farmer tends to his terraced crops in central Timor-Leste's highlands. </p>
<p>Children playing along Dili's waterfront after the daily rainstorm.</p>
<p>Two people walking along a path somewhere near Laga, in eastern Timor-Leste.</p>
<p>Shot from beneath, raindrops ping the surface of the sea just off the sacred island of Jaco.</p>
<p>Timor-Leste's rainy season delivers another dramatic sky out of the blue, this time at Jesus Backside Beach – so named for being behind the large statue of Christ that overlooks Dili's seafront. These clouds emerged suddenly and with tremendous rain moments later, before dissipating just as quickly as they'd arrived.</p>
<p>A hut in the mountains en route to Ramelau, with the dramatic weather of the rainy season appearing again!</p>
<p>A cemetery in the mountains in Timor-Leste's west. The country's Roman Catholicism is a legacy of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. </p>