Global Overview 2011: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Timor-Leste
Publisher | Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC) |
Publication Date | 19 April 2012 |
Cite as | Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (NRC/IDMC), Global Overview 2011: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Timor-Leste, 19 April 2012, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4f97fb50c.html [accessed 3 June 2023] |
Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Quick facts | |
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Number of IDPs | Undetermined |
Percentage of total population | Undetermined |
Start of current displacement situation | 1999 |
Peak number of IDPs (Year) | 740,000 (1999) |
New displacement | 1,000 |
Causes of displacement | Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement, generalised violence |
Human development index | 147 |
The majority of Timor-Leste's population of just over one million has experienced violent displacement at least once. In 1999, following a UN-supervised referendum on independence from Indonesia, 80 per cent of the population fled violence unleashed by pro-integration militias backed by the Indonesian security forces. In 2006, an estimated 150,000 people were displaced, as their homes and property in the capital Dili were seized or destroyed during violence. The causes included political rivalries and land disputes dating back to the struggle for independence, divisions between "easterners" and "westerners" within the new state, and also chronic poverty and the lack of job prospects.
The government reported that there were no more IDPs in 2010, after it closed the last camps and paid compensation to their remaining residents. However, it remained unclear in 2011 whether returned IDPs had managed to achieve durable solutions in a context where the majority of the population suffers from multiple deprivations including lack of access to food, livelihoods, health, education, housing and justice. There were also concerns related to the capacity of communities to reintegrate IDPs and resolve land disputes in the absence of a national framework.
In January 2011, an estimated 1,000 people were evicted from a former police compound where most of them had settled after they were displaced in 1999. Most received compensation, but it was reportedly insufficient to secure housing and land. At the end of the year, many of them remained in temporary shelters. The security of tenure of such people could be put at further risk by proposed land laws which were awaiting enactment at the end of 2011.
During 2011, the Protection Cluster led by OHCHR continued to monitor the situation of returning IDPs within its overview of protection issues facing the whole population. UNDP assisted the government on land and property issues and on peace-building and social cohesion.