Oecusse

Oecusse

Oecussi enclave, some 815 km2 in area, is located 80 km west of contiguous East Timor, surrounded by Indonesian West Timor, on the north shore of the island of Timor. It comprises 15% of East Timor’s territory.

Prior to the Popular Consultation in 1999, Oecussi enjoyed a beneficial location, being more or less equidistant from Timor’s main centres of Dili and Kupang. It also benefited from a relatively busy traffic in coastal trade and Oecussi was a popular source of cattle for most of West Timor. However, these geographic relationships have been adversely affected by the imposition of a new border around the enclave. Unlike the other 12 contiguous districts of Timor Loro’sae on the eastern end of the island, Oecussi sits as a dislocated district surrounded by the Indonesian province of West Timor. Geographically, ethnically, and economically, the people of Oecussi are closely linked to West Timor.

Geography

The Tono River valley dominates the Oecussi Enclave, with the great bulk of rice paddy being fed by the Tono and its tributaries. The Enclave's most prosperous areas of Padiae and Oecussi Town owe much of their wealth to the proximity of the Tono River. The vast majority of the population in the Enclave resides along the banks of the Tono. The areas to the west, east and south of the Tono are characterised by the way in which they rise sharply to mountains reaching heights of 800-900m. These areas become extremely isolated when the Tono rises during the rainy season, with Citrana in Nitibe sub-district and Passabe being the worst effected. Indeed, Passabe becomes virtually cut off during the course of the rainy season. The coastal frontier runs some 50 kilometres along the east-west track with the land border being some 300 km in length. Movement around the Enclave is limited due to a lack of transportation assets and poor roads.

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