Activists criticize high cost of Pope Francis' visit to East Timor, one of the poorest nations

DILI, East Timor (AP) — East Timor pulled out all stops for Pope Francis’ historic visit to one of the world’s youngest and poorest countries to the tune of $12 million, drawing rebuke from activists and human rights organizations in a nation where almost half the population lives in poverty.

The cost for the two-day visit starting Monday was approved by the government through the Council of Ministers in February, including $1 million to build an altar for a papal Mass.

Walls were still being dabbed with fresh paint and banners and billboards filled the streets of the seaside capital, Dili, to welcome the pontiff, who earlier visited Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

About 42% of East Timor’s population of 1.3 million live below the poverty line, according to the U.N. Development Program. Unemployment is high, job opportunities in the formal sector are generally limited and most people are subsistence farmers with no steady income.

The country's budget for 2023 was $3.16 billion. The government had earmarked only $4.7 million to increase food production, said Marino Fereira, a researcher at Timor Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. He said the $12 million expense for the papal visit “was exaggerating.”

The non-governmental agency, known locally as Lao Hamutuk, has submitted several papers to the government and parliament asking to cut expenditures on ceremonies and prioritize issues that affect people, Fereira said.

“The governments have ignored the poor in the country,” he said.

East Timor has recently faced challenges of high inflation and weather changes that have reduced cereal production, pushing some 364,000 people, or 27% of the population, to experience acute food insecurity from May to September, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization.

East Timor’s Minister of State Administration Tomas Cabral, who heads the national organizing committee for the pope’s visit, said the $12 million was excessive but it was also being used for infrastructure development, such as road constructions, renovating churches and other public facilities.

“Don’t compare our country with neighboring nations that have proper facilities and infrastructure to host international events or high-ranking state guests,“ Cabral said. ”Here, we have to build it from the scratch.”

Cabral said that about $1.2 million has been allocated for transportation and logistics of people from across the country to welcome the pontiff and attend his Mass on Tuesday.

East Timor views the visit as a prime opportunity to put the world’s spotlight on the small nation with a turbulent path to independence. It's the youngest country in Asia where 97% of the population identify as Catholic.

“The pope’s visit is the biggest, the best marketing anyone can aspire to promote the country, to put the country on the tourist map,” East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta said in an interview with The Associated Press last week.

The highlight of Francis' visit will be a Eucharistic celebration on Tuesday where more than 300,000 faithful are expected, including several thousands living from near the border of Indonesia's West Timor, the western part of the island of Timor.

The papal Mass in Tasitolu, an open field on the coast some 8 kilometers (nearly 5 miles) from downtown Dili, is also causing displeasure. The government has bulldozed about 185 families and confiscated 23 hectares (57 acres) of land for the event. Rights groups accuse the government of not offering any alternatives to poor families.

“The lives of those families are uncertain at the moment, they don’t know where to go as they are still there waiting for compensation,” said Pedrito Vieira, coordinator of the Land Network, a coalition of NGOs advocating land rights. “Sudden eviction will only give them uncertainty to plan their life.”

Cabral said those were settlers and not traditional landowners who were squatting on state land. He said they were given advance notices and time to remove their structures and move out.

“There have been those who have politicized the situation there so that the illegal settlers have refused to move for unclear reasons,” Cabral said.

Several violent crackdowns on street vendors ostensibly to ensure order in Dili ahead of Francis' trip also drew outcry among rights activists.

Social media were flooded with angry comments after footage showed dozens of alleged plainclothes police officers with sticks, crowbars and spears destroying vendor stands and goods in one of the paths where the pope’s entourage will pass.

Suzana Cardoso, a veteran journalist who recorded the incident last week in Dili's Fatuhada neighborhood, told The Associated Press that she received threats in an attempt to stop her from sharing the video.

“I have a moral obligation as a journalist to uphold justice for those weak and poor,” said Cardoso, who also covered the country’s darkest days when Indonesia responded to East Timor's U.N.-backed vote seeking independence 25 years ago with a scorched-earth campaign that shocked the world. About 1,500 people were killed, more than 300,000 were displaced and over 80% of East Timor’s infrastructure was destroyed.

Ramos-Horta instructed the police and Dili city administration to arrest those behind the destruction of vendor stands and compensate the traders.

“The government has never been instructed to carry out public order with violence,” Ramos-Horta said in a news conference.

“A free and independent press is protected by law in this country,” he said. “I appeal to all institutions not to hinder journalists and to respect press freedom.”