By Matt Crook
DILI, Jul 6 2011 (IPS)

Timor-Leste is a young nation in every sense. Nine years after achieving formal independence in 2002, ending 24 years of savage occupation by the Indonesian army, half of its population of 1.1 million is under the age of 18.

Many of its children lost friends and relatives during the Indonesian era and its bloody aftermath in 1999, one that saw the near-total destruction of the country’s infrastructure at the hands of Indonesian soldiers and local militia groups….