East Timor

A human rights organisation has filed a complaint in Dili against Myanmar’s military junta for crimes against humanity. The choice of East Timor, a recent ASEAN member with its own history of occupation and violence, opens a new legal front in Southeast Asia. Myanmar’s military have responded with a diplomatic protest, accusing East Timor of violating the principle of non-interference enshrined in the ASEAN Charter.

Speaking at the regional summit, Chinese Premier Li Qiang called on Asian countries to “close ranks” in the face of global challenges, primarily that of trade with the United States. Southeast Asia must maintain open markets while avoiding becoming embroiled in a trade duel between superpowers. The summit saw the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement upgraded. The Philippines will take over the association’s rotating presidency next year.

Yesterday, Dili officially became the 11th nation in the Southeast Asian bloc. The end of a 14-year journey was marked by a highly symbolic ceremony attended by all regional leaders. Prime Minister Rala Xanana Gusmao was the last to add his signature. Challenges and responsibilities related to inclusion remain.

In a clear change of direction, the East Timorese government has assured Myanmar's military regime that it will no longer allow opposition groups to engage in political activities or have an office on its territory. This move contradicts President José Ramos-Horta's previously announced positions and Timor-Leste's image as a country that defends human rights. It appears, however, to serve the strategic objective of full membership in the regional body, scheduled for October.

In Dili, hundreds of thousands celebrated the first anniversary of their meeting with Pope Francis, on his 45th apostolic journey outside of Italy. In Indonesia, currently shaken by violent social tensions, local bishops call for “repentance” and “listening”. In Singapore, the archdiocese launched its 2025-2035 Pastoral Plan inspired by synodality.

Timor-Leste’s president spoke at the Global Leadership & Dialogue Initiative in Kuala Lumpur. In his address, he cited the huge human toll his country paid towards full international recognition. Next October, the country will become the 11th ASEAN member state.

Elevated by Pope Francis in 2022, the first East Timorese cardinal is a Salesian from a small Catholic country where young people make up 70 per cent of the population, marked by a long struggle for independence from Indonesia. Appointed bishop of Dili in 2016, he inaugurated the John Paul II Catholic University and promotes an “open” and united Church. He remembers the joy of welcoming the pontiff before an immense crowd on Francis’s trip last September.

In the general audience held today in St Peter's Square, Francis retraced the stages of the apostolic journey that in recent days has taken him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. "I met living communities that grow by attraction. It gladdened my heart to be able to spend some time with the missionaries and catechists of today’.

While the whole country still has in its eyes the more than 600,000 people at yesterday's Mass, this morning - in his last appointment in East Timor - Francis met with young people, inviting them to ‘make noise’ to build the future without letting themselves be overcome by individualism. Then the departure for Singapore where the pontiff arrived in the early afternoon.

At the Mass he led in the esplanade of Taci Tolu in front of hundreds of thousands of faithful, Francis warned against “those crocodiles who want to change your culture”. In his address, he urged the local Church to be like the fragrance of sandalwood for which the island of Timor has been known since ancient times. The fragrance of the Gospel “must be used against everything that humiliates, disfigures, and even destroys human life”. Francis urged priests “not make you feel superior to the people”, nor act “like bosses who crush others.”

On the third stage of his apostolic journey to Asia and Oceania, Francis landed today in Timor-Leste, a country fully independent only since 2002. The pontiff praised "the commitment to achieve full reconciliation” with Indonesia, an example to the world. But he also called for “faith to be your culture” to find answers to social ills like poverty, gang violence, and child abuse.

An Italian Salesian nun who has been in the country for more than 30 years tells AsiaNews about the expectations of a people that has not yet fully emerged from the ordeal that led to independence. Education and health unresolved problems, the urgent need to train young people in politics. The desire to ‘touch’ and receive a blessing from Francis.