More than a thousand runners from 28 countries competed in the Dili City of Peace Marathon, an event championed by President José Ramos-Horta to promote national pride, peace and international engagement in Timor-Leste.

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Audio Script:

People from around the world braved the scorching heat in Timor-Leste‘s capital this weekend to participate in the country’s first-ever marathon.

In an effort to promote peace and understanding, the nation’s best athletes have come together to run the streets of Dili with competitors from Australia, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Before Timor’s independence in 2002, its occupation by neighboring Indonesia was marked by decades of violent conflicts between separatists and the Indonesian military.

The Dili City of Peace Marathon is one of several initiatives launched by Timorese President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient José Ramos-Horta to restore a sense of national identity.

Nicky Redl reports from the Timorese capital, Dili.

(drums and music)

It’s been a big weekend for the people in Timor-Leste’s capital. Over 1,000 competitors from 28 countries braved heat and humidity to compete in running events from 5 kilometers to the full marathon length of 42 kilometers.

Timor’s national team, made up of the country’s 20 best runners, has been training especially hard for the past few months.

(Zeferino Mira Belo speaking in Tetum)

Zeferino Mira Belo is a Timorese farmer who was selected to represent his country as part of the national team.

He told me he works in the fields every morning, but at 2 pm every day, it’s time for his training, for one or two hours. Afterwards, it’s back to farm work.

It’s hard work in a country where many people struggle to even harvest enough to feed themselves and their families for the whole year. But he says running is important to him, because he wants to be a strong person, and because it is his talent.

He says he feels very happy that Timor Leste now has its own marathon.

(drums and music)

The idea for the Dili Marathon came from the country’s President, José Ramos-Horta.

JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA: When I conceived these initiatives, the Dili Marathon, the Tour de Timor bike race, and numerous other sports initiatives, of course, these have to do with physical endurance, mental endurance, but it’s also part of my program to promote peace in the communities in the country.

And one way to do this is that to heal the wounds, to bring peace to the country, you need to restore a sense of national identity, pride, sense of dignity. Sport is part of all of this, to restore people’s faith.

And you can see, you can see a whole different sense of security, of hope, and it helps a lot psychology.

Timorese are very sports-minded. If you give them a space, an opportunity, a door, a window, they participate enthusiastically. This happens throughout the country. You go to some remote area, they improvise a soccer field, a volleyball, basketball field. And Marathon is one of the easiest.

And my ambition is, and pledge is, that from the Dili Marathon, those Timorese who do very good in the timing, I will arrange for them to go to Sydney Marathon, New York, Boston, because I think they will be Timor goodwill ambassadors to the world, but also they will be the pride of East Timor.

NICKY REDL: What do you hope international competitors will take away from this?

JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA: Some, they come out of a challenge. Others, I believe that they also share my concern about building peace in a country, but also in opening up to international competitors, it is always my belief to build bridges among communities.

Broadcast on ABC Radio National on June 23, 2010.