TZ and DST changes for East Timor and Dominican Republic
* East Timor seems to have changed time zone from GMT+8 to GMT+9, around the end of September. * The Dominican Republic is now using the same time zone as Eastern US with DST during summer (EST/EDT). detail information: East Timor: Charles C. Schlegel" <chucks@bkk3.loxinfo.co.th> reported this:
I have just returned from East Timor, and have discovered that the UN Transitional Authority there has decided to change the time zone of the country. I think it took effect at the end of September. E. Timor time is now 2 hours ahead of Bangkok, not one hour as before.
I don't know just who you could contact to get formal confirmation of this. The political/administrative structure in E. Timor is still very much in a state of evolution. The legal governing body at present is = the UN Transitional Authority for East Timor (UNTAET).
Dominican Republic: Enrique Morales <emorales@pnud.org.do> reported to me that the Dominican Republic has changed the time zone to Eastern Standard Time as of Sunday 29 at 2 am. Some sort of "official" statement is available in Spanish here: http://www.listin.com.do/antes/261000/republica/princi.html Use of http://babelfish.altavista.com to "translate" to English:
Power Executive modified last night decree previous which the next Sunday 29 arranged to retard in one hour the clocks in all the country to 12:00 of the midnight, that now will be the same day but to 2:00 of the dawn, to avoid probable disadvantages in the services of telecommunications.
Decree 1011, emitted last night, arranges that the delay is from the 2:00 of the dawn of the same Sunday 29, instead of the 12:00 of the midnight of that same day, as it established the previous one, the 820-00, of the 25 of last September. The new decree arranges in addition that the Sunday first of April of next year 2001, to 2:00 of the dawn, all the clocks are advanced in one hour. [continues ...]
I have some other tz updates to report as well, I hope to have them ready tomorrow. Best regards, Steffen -- Steffen Thorsen <steffen@thorsen.priv.no> <steffent@pvv.ntnu.no> http://www.thorsen.priv.no
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 00:37:33 +0100 (CET) From: Steffen Thorsen <straen@thorsen.priv.no>
* East Timor seems to have changed time zone from GMT+8 to GMT+9, around the end of September.
Thanks for the notice. I found an announcement from the United Nations that the change occurred at midnight on Saturday, September 16. I assume this meant at 24:00 that day. See: http://www.hri.org/news/world/undh/last/00-08-16.undh.html I also found an article with some of the political background. <http://etan.org/et99c/december/26-31/30ETMAY.htm> says that the Indonesians set the clocks to +08 to make them match those of the military headquarters in Bali, and that UNTAET wanted to move them ahead to save energy. UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello also claimed that +09 is more geographically correct. Since we have Dili Mean Time at +08:22:20, this claim is technically suspect. The article also has the following interesting quote from Joao Carrascalao, brother of the former governor of East Timor: Portugal tried to change the time forward in 1974 because the sun rises too early but the suggestion raised a lot of problems with the Timorese and I still don't think it would work today because it conflicts with their way of life. We don't have any record of this 1974 attempt. Our records (from Shanks) say that East Timor was at +08 until the Japanese captured it in 1942, and then at +09 until the Indonesians annexed it in 1976. Most likely our records are incomplete, but we have no better data.
Dominican Republic:
Enrique Morales <emorales@pnud.org.do> reported to me that the Dominican Republic has changed the time zone to Eastern Standard Time as of Sunday 29 at 2 am. Some sort of "official" statement is available in Spanish here: http://www.listin.com.do/antes/261000/republica/princi.html
Thanks for this notice too. I don't read Spanish, but I read the following quotes from that URL as meaning that they're instituting US-style DST as well: El nuevo decreto dispone además que el domingo primero de abril del próximo año 2001, a las 2:00 de la madrugada, todos los relojes sean adelantados en una hora. ``se ha determinado la necesidad de modificar el Decreto No. 820-00, para adoptar el estándar del Este de los Estados Unidos y Canadá''
participants (2)
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Paul Eggert -
Steffen Thorsen