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Timor

Tears in Timor: Pages from a Photographer’s Notebook

In the Comoro district of Dili, the capital of East Timor, a simple two-lane road is the dividing line. On one side are the Loro Sae—people from where the sun rises—the easterners; on the other, the Loro Mono—where the sun sets. Violence between Loro Sae and Loro Mono erupted in late March of this year when Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri sacked six hundred Loro Mono soldiers—nearly half of the country’s army of 1,400—for petitioning to end discrimination in the military by the Loro Sae.