Aileu is the main township in

Aileu District Aileu (, ) is a municipality, and was formerly a district, of East Timor. It has a population of 48,554 (Census 2015) and an area of 737 km². The municipality's capital is also named Aileu. Its administrative posts are Aileu, Laulara ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...

. It is located 47 km (29 mi) southwest of Dili, the national capital, and had a population of 2,788 in 2015. In Portuguese Timor, the city was known as Vila General Carmona, after the Portuguese dictator António Óscar Carmona, but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

it was renamed. ''Aileu'' means "bent tree" in Mambai.

History

In 1903, a rebellion staged in Aileu against the colonial rulers failed. In January 1912, it served as a Portuguese base against the rebellion of Manufahi. Between 1942 and 1945, the Japanese occupied Portuguese Timor. On August 31, 1942, the town was invaded by Colunas Negras, the Timorese allies of the Japanese invaders. Five Portuguese soldiers, as well as several civil servants and missionaries, were killed. A memorial in Aileu commemorates the massacre today.

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n soldiers set up a relocation camp in Aileu for the East Timorese at the end of 1979. In early September, during the 1999 East Timorese crisis, residents of various sucos in the area were expelled from their homes by the Aku Hidup dengan Integrasi militia of Indonesia. The

Seloi Craic Seloi Craic (''Seloi Kraik'') is a ''suco'' in Aileu subdistrict, Aileu District, East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It compri ...

suco was destroyed on September 6, the houses burned down and livestock slaughtered. At the end of 1999, there were temporary plans to make Aileu the new capital of an independent East Timor. These were rejected in favor of Dili.

History

Sister Cities

References

External links