Timor-Leste’s landscape is still deeply scarred from the conflict that raged in 1999, after the Timorese population voted for independence from Indonesia. The capital, Dili, became the crucible of an Indonesian-backed scorched-earth campaign. Around 70 per cent of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed and an estimated three-quarters of the population displaced. The buildings and monuments that were spared the destruction reveal centuries of colonial ventures in the eastern half of Timor.
Built under Portuguese colonial rule, the government palace faces the ocean front, some say symbolically, with its back turned to the rest of the city. Portuguese traders first arrived on the island of Timor in the early 16th century. Although often characterized as ruling by benign neglect, the Portuguese also brutally repressed popular uprisings such as in Manufahi (1912).
