HOLGER OBERMANN is a FIFA instructor and visited East Timor in this capacity.

East Timor has come through a tragic period in its history. In 1999 thousands of people died in this Southeast Asian country. Now the island is recovering slowly from this catastrophe - not least thanks to help from football and from FIFA.

In East Timor football is especially popular among young boys, bringing joy into their otherwise gloomy lives.
Photos: Holger Obermann
Arriving at the airport in Dili, the capital of East Timor, to meet the President of the recently founded football association, one does not find it hard to pick out the man in the crowd. Standing 190cm tall and with broad shoulders, Joao Viegas Carrascalao is an imposing figure and towers above the other members of the reception committee. He approaches his German guest with open arms as if he had known him for years. "We are pleased that FIFA has been able to answer our call for help so quickly," says Carrascalao. The FIFA instructor from Germany has come to East Timor to run a training course and also to do some coaching with children and youngsters.

The former Portuguese colony was under Indonesian rule from 1975 to 1999 and has seen some very hard times. In summer 1999 the first free elections were held, by agreement with the Indonesian government. But shortly afterwards there were confrontations with the Indonesian military and thousands of the local people were killed. Pictures of the tragedy were wired round the world, and only the intervention of an Australian military force and UN troops ended the massacre that was taking place. The bumpy trip in a military jeep makes it clear how much the war destroyed two years ago. But the host committee do not grumble or complain, not even Carrascalao, who lost several members of his family in one of the attacks. Carrascalao was recently appointed Minister of Infrastructure by the head of government, Xanana Gusmao. But the whole government is still acting on a temporary basis. Yet there is hope that perhaps even this year parliamentary elections can be held and that the island, with an area of 14,874 km2 and a population of some 700,000, will gain its independence.

Francisco Kalbuadi, the General Secretary of the East Timor Football Association, pointing to the "House of Sport", which was almost completely destroyed.
Self-confidence through football
In the city centre of Dili there is hardly a single house that does not show some war damage. Of the former clubhouse of Benfica Dili - named after the famous Portuguese club Benfica Lisbon - little remains beyond a few broken-down walls. And the "House of Sports" has also been practically demolished. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us and it will take time before we can get things back to normal. Until now much has been promised and little delivered," says Carrascalao. For the first time there is a touch of bitterness in his tone.

East Timor's sports officials are well aware that rebuilding the sporting structure cannot be of first priority. Hospitals were destroyed too, many of the roads are difficult to negotiate, water supplies are inadequate - these are all problems of higher priority. But sport can play an important social role -especially football. As it does everywhere else, football can captivate youngsters here too, and while sadly many of them on the island lost one or both parents during the massacres, they can find some pleasure in games, even though they only have dusty pitches to play on. But the game strengthens their self-confidence, gives them some motivation, helps develop a sense of responsibility and teaches them to be aware of others.

Children playing football are a common sight in East Timor
The importance of sporting development aid in East Timor is emphasised by Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize together with Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, and who is now vice-president of the de facto government of East Timor. "Sport is an uncomplicated way of getting back to normality," explains Ramos-Horta. "The future will make high demands of us all, especially of our young people, and sport can have a very positive effect in this respect."

When travelling into the interior of the country it is easy to make contact with the youngsters, with footballs that have been brought along for them proving an excellent means of opening up lines of communication. The kids are soon having a great time, notwithstanding the fact that all they have are rock hard, stony pitches.

One of the boys soon catches the eye: Francisco Santos, a lad with superb ball skills. The ten-year old lost his entire family and he only escaped by hiding behind the gas oven in the family house during the period of terror. But when the oven exploded later he suffered serious burns all over his body. While he still feels a lot of pain, since his organs and bones are not developing properly, he can still find great enjoyment in a game of football.

"Football is my life"
You can feel the joy and the passion for football everywhere in East Timor. And this sport offers one way, among others, of trying to forget, or at least of coming to terms with, the terrible events that a large part of the population had to face. For example, during a painting competition in which 500 Timorian youngsters took part, "Football is my life" was the motto that was chosen by a good number of those who had lived through particularly hard times. Many children still spend a lot of their time on the street, since the school system does not function any more because its buildings no longer exist or because many of the island's teachers fled towards West Timor. Apart from the boredom of having nothing to do, future prospects are not good - the unemployment rate in East Timor is about 80% - and so not surprisingly drugs can be a problem that the young have to deal with.

Whether on the bus or in the stand, there is great interest in the domestic league.
But football can bring some spark and diversion into the everyday lives of these youngsters. Recently a local league championship was started for the first time since the disturbances of 1999, and spectator interest in the competition, with 24 teams from all of the 13 districts taking part, is surprisingly high. There was also a lot of interest shown in a recent 3-week FIFA course for instructors, in which 80 participants were involved took part. Francisco Kalbuadi, the General Secretary of the East Timor Football Association, was very pleased at the outcome, while remaining realistic about the future: "We are still short of material, of goals, markings, training uniforms and balls. And above all our pitches need to be improved."

Yet the football officials in East Timor are convinced that the infrastructure can be improved quite soon. Part of their belief depends on further aid from FIFA. But support is also expected from other quarters, for example, the Portuguese Association will help them rebuild the Benfica clubhouse in Dili. In addition, it will assist coaches to travel from East Timor to Portugal to take part in instruction courses, and later some teams might be able go to Portugal too. Thanks to the United Nations a Croatian coach will soon start work in Dili, with the aim of building a national team. And after that, if all goes well, the island's officials hope that their country will become a member of FIFA.

Bishop Belo
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, above all for his efforts to obtain a peaceful settlement to the conflict in East Timor. He is firmly convinced that with the help of God and of sport - in particular football - things can be greatly improved in his country. "A firm belief in God is traditional and quite normal in East Timor," says Belo. "Saying prayers and taking refuge in our churches helped many of our people to survive. But what we now need above all is the mental and physical strength to enable our people to re-build the country. And as far as our youth is concerned, I see great opportunities through sport to achieve the educational and pedagogical success that we hope for."