Mist curls through the canopies, and a fine rain soaks the undergrowth.
Despite the cold, damp weather, Eusebio Diaz Quintas is happy to show a reporter part of a flourishing industry that has helped raise living standards in one of the poorest places in the world. The industry could continue to flourish, no matter which way the East Timorese vote Monday to determine whether their disputed territory should remain part of Indonesia with wide-ranging autonomy or should secede and become independent. But parts of the highlands are strongholds of militias, many formed with the encouragement of the military, that have mounted a campaign of murder and intimidation against suspected supporters of independence to try to ensure that the province does not secede. The coffee industry is caught in this tug of war. Some members and employees of the local cooperative have been killed.