Dependent Communities investigates the political situations in contemporary Cambodia and East Timor, where powerful international donors intervened following deadly civil conflicts. This comparative analysis critiques international policies that focus on rebuilding state institutions to accommodate the global market. In addition, it explores the dilemmas of politicians in Cambodia and East Timor who struggle to satisfy both wealthy foreign benefactors and constituents at home-groups whose interests frequently conflict.Hughes argues that the policies of Western aid organizations tend to stifle active political engagement by the citizens of countries that have been torn apart by war. The neoliberal ideology promulgated by United Nations administrations and other international NGOs advocates state sovereignty, but in fact "sovereignty" is too flimsy a foundation for effective modern democratic politics. The result is an oppressive peace that tends to rob survivors and former resistance fighters of their agency and aspirations for genuine postwar independence.In her study of these two cases, Hughes demonstrates that the clientelist strategies of Hun Sen, Cambodia's postwar leader, have created a shadow network of elites and their followers that has been comparatively effective in serving the country's villages, even though so often coercive and corrupt. East Timor's postwar leaders, on the other hand, have alienated voters by attempting to follow the guidelines of the donors closely and ignoring the immediate needs and voices of the people.Dependent Communities offers a searing analysis of contemporary international aid strategies based on the author's years of fieldwork in Cambodia and East Timor.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

This dissertation explores how Christian faith affected the hope and resistance of an oppressed people in their response to violence orchestrated against them. It undertakes this task through stories collected from the people of East Timor, a half-island nation located in South-East Asia that was brutally ruled by Indonesia from 1975 to 1999. The nature of Christian faith is a vexed question for the modern world particularly when this faith has grown in countries like East Timor where suffering, violence and oppression were inflicted on the people. This lack of understanding of the nature and development of Christian faith is evident in academic studies of East Timor. Moreover, the difficult nature of this question is compounded by the fact that the violence and oppression, such as that inflicted on the East Timorese, is often orchestrated by the nation-state, which itself is a creation of the modern West. Faith in these circumstances of violence is often explained away as a circumstantial reaction after which the people will return to the path of reason. Yet, this attitude is problematic in the way it juxtaposes reason and faith. It ultimately exposes an unsound anthropological understanding of the human person as well as a view of reason that is narrow and insufficient as it sees reason as unable to cope with the circumstances of violence. This dissertation argues for an understanding of faith and violence through an analysis of the experiences of the East Timorese. This analysis is undertaken from an anthropological and theological understanding of the human person, primarily based on the insights of René Girard which provide clarity in understanding the relationship between human being, reason and faith. This dissertation argues that Christian faith helped the East Timorese people confront the existential and anthropological challenges posed by violence, and so, enabled them to overcome the illusions and false transcendence of violence, which Girard (1977, 31) says “…is the heart and secret soul of the sacred”. The dissertation shows that Christian faith helped form purpose, hope and non-violent resistance to state-sanctioned violence in East Timor through the anthropological, existential and imaginative resources fostered in relationship with Christ. The dissertation proposes an explanation of the experiences of the East Timorese recounted in this dissertation that posits that relationship with and faith in Christ, as the self-giving and victimised “Other”, had a discernible and plausible effect on the East Timorese particularly in the circumstances of violence. This faith commitment seemed to change and free persons and cultural structures in East Timor from the violent transcendence imposed by the dictatorial state that presents itself as “sacred”. This freedom emerged as the oppressed and victimised East Timorese, through their experience of the violent depths of human relations, were directed toward the pacific transcendence located around the victim, Christ, the substance of which is Christ’s self-giving love originating from and shared with the Father through the Spirit. East Timorese people were directed and responded to Christ in faith as they encountered the self-giving mimesis of the Trinity sacramentally and through the martyrs. This faith formed a new ontological way, or direction, which fostered resistance to the sacred violence of the state and their supporters. Through the enactment of their faith in this new and pacific way of being in self-giving mimesis, the Christian community in East Timor sought to resist and transform the state into a more benign and responsive entity by exposing and removing its ability to arbitrarily and indiscriminately victimise and oppress. This ecclesiological stance sought to expose the truth in the midst of the lies of sacred violence through a pacific way of being that was learnt from communion with the risen Christ as self-giving victim.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study considers the situation of a group of East Timorese exiles living in Melbourne, Australia, who left East Timor or were born in exile from the time of the 1975 civil war up to the end of the Indonesian occupation of the territory in 1999. During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, diasporic groups played a central role in the campaign for self-determination. Throughout the occupation, East Timorese in Australia maintained a strong sense of long-distance nationalism, which drove, directly or indirectly, communal cultural and social activities. The fight to free East Timor was at the core of the exiles’ collective imagination, defining them as a largely homeland focused community. However, in the aftermath of independence, many have struggled to find their place and role in relation to the independent nation. Personal experiences upon return, perceptions of political, cultural, economic and social development (or lack thereof), and political unrest and communal violence have led to renewed questioning of identity and belonging. The thesis explores this new questioning of identity and belonging and, through ethnographic field research with East Timorese living in Melbourne, it explores how the exiles experience and respond to the social and political changes in their country of origin. The research for the thesis was conducted during a period of conflict and national upheaval in East Timor, and the dissertation pays particular attention to how violence and unrest at home manifest in the exiles’ lives and affect their experience of self, community and nation. The thesis explores how past socialisation and practice within social fields that are characterised by an emphasis on communalism, morality and reciprocity form part of present agency. It considers how potential contradictions between past imaginaries and lived realities can lead to intensely felt emotions, which may further advance the process of negotiation and transformation of identity and boundaries of belonging. Through an analysis of linked conceptualisations of self, emotions and national narratives, the thesis seeks to shed light on the exiles’ engagement with and relationship to independent East Timor. It aims to inform contemporary understandings of the processes of change that occur within diasporic communities at times of radical political change in the exiles’ home countries.

Surveys of emergent terraces and U-series ages for ten sites along the coast of East Timor provide estimates of late Quaternary differential vertical strain in the most mature region of the Banda Arc-continent collision complex. Over a distance of ~180 km vertical displacement rates vary between 0.0 and 1.6 meters per 1000 years for the last 150,000 years. Two models of terrace formation (constructional and erosional) are applied to interpret terrace ages from coral ages and to estimate uplift rates. The highest uplift rates are from three sites over a distance of 15 km along the coast. Uplift rates were estimated from corals approximately 20 m above mean sea-level that yield ages of c. 54–74 ka, which correspond to the 3a (c. 49-52 ka) sea-level highstand and a possible highstand or standstill in regression between the 5a sea-level highstand and the 4 sea-level lowstand . These ten sites and resulting variable uplift rates are used constrain a wavelength of deformation due to the fact that recognizable terraces along the coast are not consistent. Terraces cannot be correlated over distances greater than 10 km, vary between 2 to 25 in number, and reach varying altitudes between ~100 and 600 meters above sea-level. The results propose that along an east-west transect a background surface uplift rate increases from 0.1 meter per 1000 years near Subau to 0.5–0.6 meters per 1000 years west of Baucau and remains at that rate for over 170 km. This would indicate a broad wavelength of deformation, possibly related to lithospheric scaled processes. However, superimposed on this background uplift rate is a shorter wavelength (< 15 km) of uplift with a mean of 1.2 meters per 1000 years and peak surface uplift at 1.6 meters per 1000 years. Another interpretation proposes the possibility of at least three shorter wavelength features. The shorter wavelength is likely associated to deformation in the upper crust. This study associates the crustal deformation to Quaternary movement along retro-wedge thrust faults at depth, which indicates active crustal shortening in Timor region.

In early 1999, newly appointed Indonesian President Habibie authorised a referendum on independence for East Timor. It was held under UN supervision and an overwhelming majority voted in favour. This was not well received by the conservative Indonesian military TNI, which saw this as the beginning of an Indonesian state collapse. Therefore, the TNI launched a month-long offensive in East Timor in the autumn of 1999, characterised by massive displacement, burning of infrastructure, sexual violence against women, and repeated cases of wanton murders. Consequently, some historians have described the period as a genocide. The term genocide aims to describe a concept where a perpetrator has a coordinated plan to destroy key elements of national groups, with the aim of ending the groups’ existence as a whole. Genocide is thus strongly characterised by the idea of human rights and, by extension, has a liberal underpinning. This study aims to determine whether the East Timor Crisis of 1999 can be described as a genocide; whether the description is correct if consideration is made to what constitutes a group and the intent of the perpetrator. It also aims to achieve this by using the originator of the term Raphaël Lemkin's eight societal domains in which he regards genocide to be committed and thus applies events from the East Timor Crisis within these domains to determine whether genocide has taken place. The study makes use of a qualitative, theory consuming case study methodology. It then concludes that genocide, with exceptions, occurred within every societal domain of the East Timorese society throughout the East Timor Crisis of 1999.

The author joins the Peace Corps in the hopes that he will discover who he really is yet he only finds frustration. Upon returning to the States he has a daughter and finds peace. Within this peace, as he types up the life history of a friend, he finally makes a breakthrough, yet the answer he finds is not to his liking.

Este trabalho tem como escopo analisar, sob o viés dos estudos do discurso e da linguagem, como se edificam discursivamente identidades para o povo leste-timorense. Para tanto, a partir do tratamento qualitativo dos elementos dos corpora, observamos os procedimentos linguístico-discursivos relacionados à ativação/construção/mobilização de frames, à construção de objetos de discurso e à patemização. Nossos corpora são compostos por dez discursos pronunciados por Xanana Gusmão em dois momentos distintos da história de Timor-Leste: no período em que atuou como guerrilheiro durante a ocupação indonésia (entre 1982 e 1993) e, posteriormente, quando ocupou o cargo de Presidente da República (entre 2001 e 2006). O desenvolvimento do trabalho está articulado em torno de cinco eixos de estudo: História, Identidade, Cognição, Análise Crítica do Discurso e Argumentação. Quanto ao aporte teórico, recorremos às pesquisas de Anderson (1993/2009), Chomsky (2015, 1999 e 1987), Durand (2009), Felgas (1956), Magalhães (1999), Ribeiro (2004), SantAnna (1997) e Thomaz (2008 e 2002), para tratar das questões de cunho histórico; no âmbito da identidade, buscamos subsídio, fundamentalmente, nos trabalhos de Moita Lopes (2006), Mendes (2005), Hall (2006, 2000) e Moscovici (2006); no que concerne aos estudos do discurso, relativamente à construção de objetos de discurso e aos frames, como elementos de natureza cognitiva, serviram-nos como fundamento as obras de Fávero (2009), Marcuschi (2007, 2005 e 2002), Aquino (2016 e 1991), Aquino e Palumbo (2018); Koch (2005, 2004, 2002 e 2001), Goffman (2006 [1974]), Fillmore (2009 [1982]) e Mondada e Dubois (2003 [1995]); por fim, no que concerne à argumentação e à análise crítica do discurso, recorremos aos trabalhos de Perelman e Olbrechts-Tyteca (1999 [1958]) van Dijk (2015, 2008, 1994 e 1983), Fairclough (2009) e Aquino (1997), respectivamente. As análises permitiram-nos identificar que os distintos projetos de construção de identidades leste-timorenses representados pelos discursos de Xanana Gusmão nos períodos analisados fundam-se em pelo menos dois frames proeminentes: o de Guerra e o de Família, durante o Período Indonésio, e o de Guerra e o de Povo Genérico, no momento Pós-Indonésio. Desse modo, observamos que a complexidade de que se reveste o conceito de identidade, para além das questões de ordem social e que se refletem nas discursivas, também se deve aos procedimentos discursivos e sociocognitivos que lhe dão forma. Os discursos de Xanana Gusmão, portanto, não apenas discorrem sobre a realidade e os anseios de transformá-la, mas atuam na construção dela, bem como na de seus personagens, atribuindo-lhes identidades que estejam em conformidade com seus projetos de dizer. / This work aims to analyze, as part of the study of discourse and language, how identities are discursively built for East Timorese people. Therefore, from the qualitative treatment of the elements of corpora, the linguistic-discursive procedures are observed related to the activation/construction/mobilization of frames, to the construction of speech objects and to pathemization. Our corpora are composed by ten speeches delivered by Xanana Gusmão in two different moments in the history of East Timor: during his period as a guerrilla during the Indonesian occupation (between 1982 and 1993) and later when he was the President (between 2001 and 2006). The development of this work is articulated around five pillars of research: History, Identity, Cognition, Critical Discourse Analysis and Argumentation. As for the theoretical contribution, we used the research of Anderson (1993/2009), Chomsky (2015, 1999 and 1987), Durand (2009), Felgas (1956), Magalhães (1999), Ribeiro (2004), Sant\'Anna (1997) and Thomaz (2008 and 2002), to deal with historical issues; in the scope of identity, we sought support, fundamentally, in the works of Moita Lopes (2006), Mendes (2005), Hall (2006, 2000) and Moscovici (2006); what concerns discourse studies, regarding the construction of discourse objects and frames, as elements of a cognitive nature, we made use of the works of Fávero (2009), Marcuschi (2007, 2005 and 2002), Aquino (2016 and 1991), Aquino and Palumbo (2018); Koch (2005, 2004, 2002 and 2001), Goffman (2006 [1974]), Fillmore (2009 [1982]) and Mondada and Dubois (2003 [1995]); finally, with regard to the argumentation and critical analysis of the discourse, we resorted to the works of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1999 [1958]) van Dijk (2015, 2008, 1994 and 1983), Fairclough (2009) and Aquino (1997). The analyzes allowed us to identify that the distinct projects of construction of the East Timorese identities represented by Xanana Gusmão\'s discourses in the analyzed periods are based on at least two prominent frames: War and Family, during the \"Indonesian Period\" , and War and Generic People, in the \"Post-Indonesian\" period. Thus, we observe that the complexity of the concept of identity, beyond social issues and reflected in the discourses, is also due to the discursive and socio-cognitive procedures that shape them. The discourses of Xanana Gusmão, therefore, not only discuss the reality and the yearnings to transform it, but act in the construction of it, as well as of its characters, attributing to them identities that are in conformity with his speech project.

Esta pesquisa reivindica a capacidade de aglutinação de escritores das literaturas de língua portuguesa por Timor-Leste, e com isso, a leitura do fazer literário poder ocorrer pela dimensão das relações. Nelas, entende-se a fragilidade de um rizoma (baseado na conceituação de Deleuze e Guattari) passível de ser analisado nas obras entre si, na prática da intertextualidade e nos índices paratextuais reunidos, porque se interlocucionam por Timor. Para isso, evidencia-se o encadeamento da textualidade flagrada entre os escritores de língua portuguesa, que um a um cavam a própria capilaridade no rizoma-Timor, transmutado em Rede Literária de Timor. Pelo menos vinte escritores se interconectaram rizomaticamente a três escritores-nós, Ruy Cinatti, Xanana Gusmão e Luís Cardoso, fazendo dessa dinâmica de produtividade o flagrante da Rede Literária de Timor. Observou-se que o trânsito de literatas foi a ocorrência mais acionada, ao passo que a permanência-pertença foi gratamente evidenciada em Luís Cardoso, Joana Ruas e Teresa Amal. / This research claims the agglutination capacity of writers of Portuguese-language literatures by East Timor, and with this, the reading of literary making can occur through the dimension of relationships. In them, it is understood the fragility of a rhizome (based on the conceptualization of Deleuze and Guattari) passible to be analyzed in the works among themselves, in the practice of intertextuality and in the paratextual indexes gathered, because they promote interlocution by Timor. For this, it shown the evident linkage of textuality caught between Portuguese-speaking writers, who one by one dig the very capillarity in the rhizome-Timor, transmuted into the Timors Literary Network. At least twenty writers interconnected rhizomatically to three writers-knot, Ruy Cinatti, Xanana Gusmão and Luís Cardoso, making this productivity dynamic the flagrant of the Timors Literary Network. It was observed that the traffic of literates was the most frequent occurrence, while the permanence-belonging was gracefully evidenced in Luís Cardoso, Joana Ruas and Teresa Amal.