Everything about Oecussi-ambeno totally explained
Oecussi-Ambeno (
Tetum:
Oe-Kusi Ambenu, also variously
Ocussi,
Oekussi,
Oekusi,
Okusi,
Oé-Cusse) is a district of
East Timor. It is a coastal
exclave in the western part of the island of
Timor, separated from the rest of East Timor by
West Timor, which is part of the province of
Nusa Tenggara Timur,
Indonesia, and which surrounds Oecussi-Ambeno in all directions except the north, where it borders the
Savu Sea. The capital of the district is
Pante Macassar, also called
Ocussi Town, or formerly, in
Portuguese Timor, as
Vila Taveiro.
The district has an area of 815 square kilometers.
A ferry boat connects the territory to
Dili, arriving twice a week on a journey which takes 12 hours.
An airport exists,
Oecussi Airport.
History
Oecussi and Ambeno are the names of the two original kingdoms, which existed before the colonial period.
Oecussi-Ambeno was the first part of the island of
Timor on which the
Portuguese established themselves, and is thus usually considered the cradle of East Timor. In
1556, a group of Dominican brothers established the first village in
Lifau, five km to the west of modern
Pante Macassar. In 1702, Lifau became the capital of the colony when it received the first governor from
Lisbon. The capital was transferred to
Dili in 1767, because of the frequent attacks from
Dutch forces, who were conquering what is today
Indonesia.
It was only in 1859, with the
Treaty of Lisbon, that
Portugal and the
Netherlands divided the island between them.
West Timor became Dutch, with its colonial seat at
Kupang, and
East Timor became Portuguese, with its seat in Dili. This left Oecussi-Ambeno as an enclave surrounded by Dutch territory. The definitive border was drawn by the
Hague in 1916. Apart from Japanese occupation during
World War II, the border remained the same until the end of the colonial period. The region was given the status of municipality, named Oecússi, by the Portuguese government in August 1973, the last Timorese area to receive it.
It was in Pante Macassar that an
Indonesian
fifth column raised the
Indonesian flag and took control of the exclave on
29th November,
1975, a week before the
Indonesian invasion of East Timor proper. However, even under Indonesian rule, Oecussi-Ambeno was administered as part of the province of East Timor, as it had been as part of
Portuguese Timor. Like much of the country, it suffered violent attacks near the 1999 referendum for independence. Over 90 percent of the infrastructure was destroyed. It became part of the independent state of East Timor on
20 May 2002.
In the 1970s and 1980s,
New Zealander anarchist
Bruce Grenville began a hoax, claiming to have founded the sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno. He invented a history for the state of tribes united against the
Portuguese. He then printed stamps, letterheads, and so forth, which generated income by mail order. He even established diplomatic relations with a few small states, including
Monaco,
Liechtenstein, and the
Republic of Minerva.
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Administrative Divisions
Oecussi-Ambeno is divided into 4 subdistricts:
The subdistricts are divided into 19 sucos (communities) in total.
Demographics
The district has a population of 58,521 people, divided into 13,016 households (Census
2004).
The
Atoni, one of many indigenous ethnic groups, number about 20,000 in the district. A much larger number live in the surrounding part of
West Timor.
Languages
In addition to the official languages of East Timor,
Tetum and
Portuguese,
Indonesian is widely used as a lingua franca in the area.
The Atoni speak
Baikeno, a
Timor language. This language is surviving well, with many monolingual speakers. There are few loans from Portuguese and almost none from Tetum in the language.
Religion
Most of the inhabitants are
Roman Catholics.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Oecussi-ambeno'.
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