East Timor looks to the pope’s visit as a reward after 20 years of fragile stability

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor is in a festive mood as it prepares for the arrival of Pope Francis on his first trip to the deeply Catholic country, hard on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the referendum on independence from Indonesia.

Francis is due to arrive Monday in one of the world’s poorest countries of 1.3 million people, also known as Timor-Leste, following visits to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Banners and billboards have filled the streets of the seaside capital, Dili, to welcome the pontiff.

“The pope’s visit is the biggest, the best marketing anyone can aspire to promote the country, to put the country on the tourist map,” East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The 74-year-old former independence fighter and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who returned to the presidency in 2022, said the papal visit is a “reward” for the depth of faith shown by the Timorese, some 98% of whom identify as Catholic, and recognition of the progress toward peace in recent years.

The World Bank in its semi-annual report in February praised East Timor as a peaceful, democratic nation. For more than 10 years, free and fair elections have been held despite tensions between the two largest parties that have occasionally erupted into violence.

The country’s path to statehood has been traumatic.

The Timorese first declared their independence from Portugal, the colonial ruler, on Nov. 28, 1975, but that move was crushed nine days later when neighboring Indonesia invaded. As many as 200,000 people were killed during the 24 years of Indonesian rule.

On Aug. 30, 1999, Timorese cast their ballots in a United Nations-backed referendum that backed independence from Indonesia