REPORT From Agence France-Presse
Published on 28 Dec 2012
by Raimundos Oki
Dili,
Dec 28, 2012 (AFP) - The UN winds up its peacekeeping mission Monday
after 13 years in Asia's youngest nation East Timor, with the country
hoping to overcome its bloody past and rampant poverty to stand on its
own feet.
East Timor this year conducted largely peaceful
elections, voting in a new president and parliament, as the country
marked a decade of formal independence and paved the way for the foreign
forces to leave. But as the last remaining UN police and troops trickle
home, the fragile democracy is still struggling with widespread
malnutrition, high unemployment and maternal mortality rates that are
among the worst in the world.
East Timor was occupied by
Indonesia for 24 years, with some 183,000 people dying from fighting,
disease and starvation before the half-island state voted for
independence in 1999 in a bloody referendum, prompting the first UN
mission. There is little concern about renewed violence in the immediate
future, yet few employment opportunities, crushing poverty and a
rapidly expanding population could still threaten peace in the long
term, analysts say.
"There's always in this situation the
potential for something serious to go wrong," George Quinn from the
Australian National University told AFP.
More than 40 percent of
young Timorese are jobless, according to AusAID, and although the
predominantly Catholic nation has a small population, the fertility rate
of 6.5 per woman is the world's fourth-highest, UN data shows.
Despite
$1.5 billion of aid pouring into the nation of 1.1 million people over
the last decade and abundant offshore oil and gas reserves, some 41
percent of the population live on less than the local poverty line of 88
cents a day.
In and around the capital Dili, barefoot
children can be seen eating scraps from the ground in slums, and the
pace of life remains slow, with vendors making a pittance at fruit and
vegetable markets.
World Bank data from 2010 showed 45.3
percent of children under five were malnourished, up from 40.6 percent
in 2002, while on the UN's human development index, East Timor ranks
147th out of 187 nations, below Pakistan and Bangladesh, and well below
the regional average.
East Timor's economy has also become visibly
two-tier since 1999 -- there are those raking in US dollars from
government infrastructure projects in urban areas, while the majority
are subsistence farmers in far-flung villages.
Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmao insisted after his July re-election that energy
revenue would transform East Timor "from being an undeveloped,
low-income country by 2030, by making use of all our material and human
potential".
While the country's Petroleum Fund has swollen
to $10.5 billion and makes up between 80 to 90 percent of government
revenue, critics point out the reserves are fast falling as they call
for diversification of the economy.
Rural Timorese also
complain the money has not changed their lives, saying the funds are
channelled to the city through infrastructure projects.
"East Timor has always had a problem with properly disbursing its income, and that problem still persists," Quinn said.
Despite
the problems still facing East Timor, the departure of the remaining UN
forces -- which numbered 1,600 at the mission's peak -- nevertheless
underscores the progress the country has made in recent years.
The
withdrawal has been welcomed by most, especially leaders who insisted
on the country's ability to handle its own security well before
responsibility was handed back to national police in October.
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http://reliefweb.int/report/timor-leste/un-leaves-e-timor-still-facing-rampant-poverty
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