ABOUT EAST TIMOR

· 30th August 2001, East Timor was able to hold the first free elections.
· An estimated 70% of the country’s infrastructure, buildings and homes destroyed or damaged, by Indonesian military forces just prior to Independence.
· Thousands of East Timorese killed, 2/3 of the population displaced, or deported to West Timor.
· It is the poorest nation in South East Asia, with 40% of the population living on less than 76c. per day.
· It currently has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world, 830 women per 100,000 live births, and 85 babies per 1000 live births.
· Unemployment rates sit at 70%.
· 19th May, 2002, the new flag for East Timor was raised, its new national anthem sung, and it became the world’s newest democracy and the first new country of the third millennium.