Mass at the Igreja Evanglelica church invokes Mark 3:25 and its warnings about nations divided, and ends with a prayer for peace and guidance. The congregation murmurs its assent and heads out blinking into the penetrating late-morning light of Dili. With parliamentary elections scheduled for 7 July, the preacher’s thoughts of a safe future weigh extra heavy on all. Big decisions are about to made in this tiny, poverty-stricken, half island country of 1.1 million on Australia’s northern doorstep. But the role the future plays in it remains problematic…(more)

Pic above was taken when I visited the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, where a massacre of peaceful protesters occurred in 1991, setting off a wave of civil upheaval against the Indonesia occupation, leading to independence in 1999.