Suai is a city in

Timor-Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

, in Suai Subdistrict. It has a population of 9,866 and is located to the southwest of

Dili Dili (Portuguese language, Portuguese and Tetum language, Tetum: ''Díli'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Timor-Leste. It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in by mountai ...

, the national capital. Suai is the capital of the

Cova Lima District Cova Lima (, ) is a municipality of East Timor, in the Southwest part of the country. It has a population of 59,455 (Census 2010) and an area of 1,230 km2. The capital of the municipality is Suai, which lies 136 km from Dili, the ...

, which is in the southwest of the country. It is located just a few kilometers from the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea (, , or ) is a relatively shallow sea in the Indian Ocean bounded to the north by the island of Timor with Timor-Leste to the north, Indonesia to the northwest, Arafura Sea to the east, and to the south by Australia. The Sunda Tr ...

, on the south side of the island. Suai was the location of the Suai Church Massacre in September 1999. It was one of a number of massacres perpetrated by a

pro-Indonesia militia Pro-Indonesia militias in East Timor, commonly known as Wanra (), were active in the final years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Indonesian occupation leading up to the 1999 East Timorese independence referendum, 1999 independence refe ...

in the time of the Indonesian withdrawal of East Timor. Following the events of 1999, Suai entered into a friendship program with the

City of Port Phillip The City of Port Phillip is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area of Victoria, Australia on the northern shores of Port Phillip, south of Melbourne's central business district. It has an area of 20.7 km2 and had a pop ...

, a bayside municipality south of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Together they are working towards assisting the community of Suai recover. Suai is served by Suai Airport which was expanded in 2017. The Suai Referral Hospital is located in the town.

References

External links

* {{District capitals of Timor-Leste Populated places in Timor-Leste Cova Lima Municipality Timor Sea

See also

References

External links