Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the villager conferred among his friends who, puffing on clove cigarettes, nodded approvingly. In 1983, Indonesia created a regional capital, Gleno, but Ermera remains the real cultural and social hub for the district of the same name. Ermera is typical of many of East Timor's rural centres. The peasant population live barely above subsistence level, harvesting coffee between June and August. Small household plots produce small quantities of maize, rice, cassava and sweet potato, but food security remains a niggling concern.
Livestock plays an important role in most peasant families' finances.
Sturdy Timor ponies provide reliable transport in a region where roads are routinely washed away. Coffee is the district's main income earner - about 37 per cent of Ermera's cultivated land is dedicated to coffee growing while only 7per cent is used to produce food. Before the violence that followed the 30 August referendum, the population of Ermera was about 90,000, or 10 per cent of East Timor's population. Last week, a UN team visited the old town, which, like most in East Timor, was devastated by Indonesian security forces and militias. The team wanted to meet local people, Falintil guerrillas, and the leadership of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, or CRNT, East Timor's biggest pro-independence coalition.