East Timor's Land Tenure Problems: a Consideration of Land Reform Programs in South Africa and Zimbabwe
EAST TIMOR'S LAND TENURE PROBLEMS: A CONSIDERATION OF LAND REFORM PROGRAMS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE Amy Ochoa Carson* INTRODUCTION This Note suggests ways to alleviate East Timor's' land tenure problems. These problems resulted from the country's complicated history.2 In 2002, East Timor was given its long-awaited independence and became the world's newest 3 nation. Since being discovered in the 1500s, East Timor was originally a Portuguese colony4 and, more recently, an Indonesian colony.5 Now that East Timor has gained its independence, it faces many obstacles before it can become a successful, self-sufficient nation. As of 2005, the country had one of the lowest real gross domestic products (GDP) in the world at eight hundred dollars.6 A massive problem East Timor must overcome is its complicated and * J.D. Candidate, Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, 2007. B.A., Hanover College, 2004. 1. In this Note the name East Timor will be used. There are, however, various names for the country of East Timor: The name most common in the English-speaking West is really a tautology since Timor is just the Indonesian word for 'east'. So East Timor is East East, and in fact the Indonesians referred to the province as Timor Timur or, in its shortened version, Tim Tim.... • * * [East Timor is also called] Timor Leste, which is East Timor in Portuguese. Or Timor Lorosae (also Loro Sa'e and Lor Sae), which can be Translated as 'Timor where the sun rises' in Tetun. Finally, the official English language name is Democratic Republic of East Timor ...
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