Loro Sae
With Loro Sae the eastern part of the country is East Timor's called. This leads to confusion, since the official name of the country in the official language Tetum Timor is Loro S'ae . Loro Sae means rising sun or simply east . The residents of Loro Saes are called Firaku regardless of their other ethnicity . In contrast, the western part of the country Loro Munu and its inhabitants are called Kaladi . The state capital Dili , as a melting pot of the country's various ethnic groups and groups, is the scene of regular street fights between gangs from the east and the west.
The name Firaku is probably derived from the Portuguese vira o cu (turning one's back to someone), which probably refers to the alleged tendency of the Eastern Timorese to rebellion and their alleged stubbornness and temperament. Another theory suspects a word from the Makasae as origin : fi raku means we comrades . The name was first used in the middle of the 19th century. The east consists of the municipalities of Lautém , Baucau , Viqueque and Manatuto . Sometimes Manatuto is also assigned to Loro Munu. The Firaku see themselves as those who defeated the Indonesian occupation forces through their long resistance . The Firaku include important East Timorese military figures and former President Xanana Gusmão .
The unrest of 2006, despite the strong national movement from which the country emerged, re-emerged the division of the country into the east and west, which already existed before the colonial era and which has a significant impact on everyday life in East Timor. The east of the island of Timor formed a loose association before colonization by Portugal , which was ruled by Likusaen (today: Liquiçá ) or Luca . Ties to the realm of Wehale that dominated the center of the island still existed. Among other things, it is reported that the eastern areas have to pay tribute. Later, the parts of Wehales, which fell to Portugal when the island was divided with the Netherlands , were united with the eastern provinces to form the colony of Portuguese Timor .
If there were always internal disputes, it was mostly short tribal wars instead of protracted conflicts. The separation into East and West was of subordinate importance and was mostly masked by political interests. In the civil war of 1975, for example, the front between FRETILIN and UDT cut across regions and ethnic groups. But as early as 1975 the FRETILIN politician Mau Lear warned in his treatise “The establishment of new relationships in East Timor” of the tensions between the two parts of East Timor. After the liberation from the Indonesian occupation, a clear dividing line developed from the weak division. The Firaku claim to have done most of the resistance against the Indonesians.
The Firaku accuse the West of sympathizing with the Indonesians. Many of the policemen who recruited the Indonesians were Kaladi. The UN and the independent East Timor have taken over most of these police officers into their service. The simmering conflict between the police and the military resulted from this.
Today one also notices a political division of the country. In the east, the left-wing, old independence party FRETILIN still dominates , while in the west the ruling Congresso Nacional da Reconstrução Timorense is in the lead.
Web links
- Rethinking Timorese Identity as a Peace Building Strategy: Lorosa'e-Loromonu Conflict from a traditional perspective, June 6, 2007 (PDF file; 1.44 MB)
See also
- History of East Timor
- Chapter languages and ethnic groups in the article East Timor
- Gangs in East Timor
Individual evidence
- ↑ Douglas Kammen: Subordinating Timor - Central authority and the origins of communal identities in East Timor , p. 250 ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ António Benedito 'Nito' da Silva, Community Development Studies, Universidade National Timor-Lorosae: Community and the current crisis in Timor-Leste ( Memento of March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Return to Rai Ketak, Thoughts on "crize"
