Voices of East Timor

Operation gives Marcel his heart back

2010-11-11T16:52:00.002+10:00

November 10, 2010 - 3:59PM AAP Marcel de Jesus probably had a year left in him when he was plucked from a health clinic in East Timor by Rotary and flown to Australia for urgent surgery on a malfunctioning heart.

The 19-year-old had contracted TB which had stunted his growth and resulted in major heart scarring and poor circulation.

Monash Heart cardiologist Dr Andrew Cochrane, who does pro bono work in East Timor annually, felt Marcel deserved a real chance at life and operated on him last month at the Monash Medical Centre.
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"He was going downhill and his life expectancy was down to about one year," Dr Cochrane said on Wednesday.

Dr Cochrane says there are many people in East Timor with heart disease and says it can just come down to luck for those wanting operations in Australia.

"It can be a matter of luck, of seeing a particular doctor in a particular clinic at the right time," Dr Cochrane said.

"We knew we could do the operation with Marcel without it being too complicated."

Through an interpreter from his hospital bed, Marcel said he feared the operation would kill him.

Still feeling pain in his chest after the surgery, Marcel said that before the operation he worked as a gardener in the TB clinic he attended but was very weak and lethargic.

When he was offered the chance to undergo the life-saving operation he felt "happy and scared".

"I didn't want to come because I was scared - I didn't think I would survive the operation," he said.

But after some encouragement and words of support he took the step that has saved his life.

Augusto Ramos Soares: Timorese Running Hero

2010-11-08T18:21:00.000+10:00

07 November 2010 www.dilimarathon.com - Augusto Ramos Soares, the 24 year old runner from the mountain district of Aileu has come into his own as a role model for Timorese, and as a driver for the development of Timorese sports and athletics.

In just four hours, Ramos Soares will be starting off on the biggest marathon of his life.

Ramos Soares was chosen along with Agueda Amaral to represent Timor-Leste at the New York City Marathon, this Sunday 7 November. Along the way they have been involved in various meetings that aim to promote Timorese sporting capacity.

The team concluded a successful visit to Canberra including meetings with the Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Timor-Leste, Janelle Saffin, the Minister for Sport, Mark Arbib, opposition leader Tony Abbott and Timor-Leste’s ambassador to Australia, Sr. Abel Guterres.

Mr. Abbott’s expression of interest in competing either in the 20 June 2011 Dili Marathon or the September 12-17 2011 Tour de Timor (www.tourdetimor.com) has been an inspirational point for the two runners. Mr. Abbott was very grateful for the attention given to him by the two runners and promised to do his best to make it over for one of the two events.

Mr. Arbib was equally supportive offering enhanced engagement between the two sporting nations which is sure to see Timor-Leste’s future as a competitive sporting country continue to rise and rise.

Spurred on by various friends of Timor in Australia and the East Timor Action Network in New York, both Augusto Ramos Soares is set on giving his best performance to date. Having run in Laos, Darwin and East Timor, he is now keen to consolidate his record of 2h30 minute marathons and push below the mark. He has the expectations of the country on his shoulders and it suits him fine.

Asked why he runs: for money, for fame, for love of the sport, he chose a different answer. “My country” he told me, is why he runs. The 5AM daily starts, resisting the urge to drink carbonated beverages (and certainly not alcohol), his country’s beloved Aimanas Timor (an especially hot variant of chilli) and any other unhealthy foods would surely take a toll on most 24 year olds.

Not Augusto though. He is only too happy to give up all of these things in order to attain his goals. And increasingly he now has competition. The amazing success of the first Dili Marathon this year has inspired many other Timorese youth to join Augusto in his training regime.

Augusto has certainly reaped the benefits, being offered today to begin the race in the sub-elite category, reserved for those who have completed a marathon in under 2h35minutes. He is certainly now in striking distance of attaining elite status and perhaps even his country’s first ever medal at the Olympic Games in 2012.

Augusto noted that his appreciation of the training that he had undergone with coach Sr. Antonio, and veteran running mate Agueda Amaral.

“I’m feeling really good” said Augusto, “it is only really the climate that is challenging for us, because it is not the same as home”

“It is good that the climate in Australia is not so different to New York”

“I am going as a representative to the New York City Marathon on behalf of my nation. This can show the world, that Timor is a nation that lives in peace”

“I’m not nervous, I’m really happy. This is the first time I’ve been to a nation as big as this.

“I can be like a bridge, I can provide motivation for other athletes. But my Timorese friends, the Timorese children, show them the path so that they can improve and succeed through training and dedication.

Stay tuned for tonight’s update on Augusto and Agueda’s results and feelings on the race.

Follow the progress of Augusto and Agueda at www.dilimarathon.com

Email contact: media@tourdetimor.com

Future East Timor leader gets leg up from North Shore Rotary

2010-07-02T18:10:00.000+10:00

25 JUN 10 @ 02:43AM BY ANDREW PRIESTLEY When Guilhermina de Araujo was 12, she hid under a bed as pro-Indonesia militiamen fired upon her.

Now, she's in Australia learning English to help rebuild her country.

Ms de Araujo, now 23, remembers the havoc in Dili after the East Timorese people voted for independence in 1999.

Her family hid in the mountains to avoid the militia, which went on a rampage hunting down and killing independence supporters.

"We were under the bed when the militia went (through)." she said, imitating the sound of machine gunfire.

"The militia shoot and burn everything. The militia burned Dili. Everything was gone. All the neighbourhood was burned."

Ms de Araujo has now come to Australia as a guest of Lindfield Rotary Club, which helped her get a scholarship to the Australian College of English in Sydney.

She will finish her 30-week course in October and return to East Timor to help Rotary support young East Timorese leaders.

Ms de Araujo was enthusiastic about helping East Timor.

"I really want to help my country. I can use my leadership to help people," she said.

Ms de Araujo's main goal was to build education and employment opportunities in East Timor, particularly for women.

Education, she said, was vital to for the East Timorese people.

"We need education. Education can change people," she said.

"I hope in Timor, when we have a lot of education, we can change it."

Former Lindfield Rotary president Maggie supported Ms de Araujo in her in her education endeavours.

She believed Ms de Araujo could do great things for her country.

"I think she's got all the potential to be a future leader of East Timor," she said.

Ms de Araujo hoped she could help her country be a better place.

"I love Timor. I love my country," she said.

"I want to contribute what I have ... I want to work hard ... to help people in my country."

ICRC Study on Needs of Families of Missing Persons

2010-05-26T19:12:00.002+10:00

May 18, 2010 Tuesday

TIMOR-LESTE: ICRC STUDY ON NEEDS OF FAMILIES OF MISSING PERSONS

The following information was released by the International Committee of the Red Cross:

On 17 May 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) formally handed over a special study to national authorities and members of civil society at a ceremony attended by Zacarias Albano Da Costa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

The study, titled Needs of Families of the Missing in Timor Leste, gives expression to the anguish of Timorese families whose loved ones went missing in connection with the 1975 -1999 armed conflict in Timor-Leste. It sums up the findings of an in-depth study conducted by Simon Robins, an external consultant familiar with both the issue and the socio-cultural context. The study also contains a number of valuable recommendations for addressing the needs of families of missing persons.

"I would like to forget about them but it's impossible because they haunt my dreams. Something hasn't been done for them and it's like they are coming to remind us about it," said a man of his two brothers who were missing. Disappearance has taken its toll on families, among whom cases of depression and mental illness are common. Although most families cited economic support as their most pressing need, almost one-third of them mentioned recognition of the sacrifice made by the family as a priority.

Fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and human rights law help prevent persons from going missing in situations of armed conflict or internal violence. To respect these principles is to respect the integrity and dignity of all human beings, including the deceased. Families have a right to learn the fate of relatives who have gone missing during a conflict or some other situation of violence.

For further information, please contact:

Zurab Burduli, ICRC Dili, tel: +670 331 04 52 or +670 732 15 58

Timor-Leste: Tough times in distant Oecusse

2010-05-26T10:57:00.002+10:00

OECUSSE, 17 May 2010 (IRIN) - Elisa Kefi and her 63-year-old sister brave the heat and sit on the side of the street selling nuts and small vegetables in Timor-Leste’s Oecusse enclave. “The government doesn’t really pay us much attention, but we still have to look for money to feed our families,” said mother-of-three Kefi, 37.

If they sell everything, they can make up to US$5, but usually they only pocket $2 a day.

Life is hard in Oecusse, sandwiched between Indonesian West Timor and the Savu Sea. The Portuguese landed in the 15th century and kept Oecusse after dividing up Timor island with the Dutch, who arrived the next century in modern-day West Timor.

In 1999, after almost 80 percent of Timor-Leste voted in favour of independence from Indonesia, ending a bloody 24-year occupation by the Indonesian military, Oecusse bore the brunt of the wrath of the departing military, which destroyed most of the infrastructure and two-thirds of homes.

Today, the region of 815 sqkm surrounded by Indonesia, a little bigger than Singapore, is still one of the world’s youngest and poorest. With no Indonesian consulate and only two, 12-hour ferry rides to the capital Dili each week, the 80,000 or so inhabitants, most of whom live in the mountains, struggle on.

Livelihood challenge

Kefi and her sister are also part of a 10-strong group of traditional tais weavers, who can make up to $300 a month by selling their products in Dili.

Trading locally produced products is key to alleviating poverty in Oecusse, according to Jorge Teme, Timor-Leste’s Secretary of State for the area.

“The main issue we are dealing with is how to increase the income of the people because the people now are still in the transition stage from subsistence farming to the introduction of cash crops,” he said.

Boosting agriculture is a challenge because of Oecusse’s long dry season, poor soil and mountainous territory, which is compounded by a lack of permanent water sources, according to a 2008 Oxfam report. The primary crops are corn and rice, while secondary crops include cassava, soy beans, peanuts and sweet potatoes.[http://mams.rmit.edu.au/f6qs47gbumu3.pdf]

Paul Joicey, country director for Oxfam's Timor-Leste programme, told IRIN that diversifying crops, better access to seeds and training, and moving away from slash-and-burn techniques are crucial.

“There is progress in agriculture, but it’s still patchy,” he said. “We are seeing diversification of crops and we are seeing increasing production of basic food crops, but it is still on a small scale.”

Mix and match

Cooperativa Café Timor (CCT) is working in Oecusse on a cattle-management programme.

Cattle farmers in Oecusse usually maintain their livestock individually and struggle to find buyers. AusAID funds a matchmaking team from Peace Dividend Trust (PDT) that connects CCT with those farmers. Buffaloes are bought and collected by CCT and then given to local groups to fatten up until they can be exported to Indonesia.

“CCT gets 30 percent and the communities get 70 percent of the money. There are 59 groups in all of about 10 to 50 people each. The groups keep the buffaloes for a year or a year-and-a-half,” CCT coordinator, Diolindo Sequeira, told IRIN.

Between February 2009 and February 2010, PDT’s matchmaking team in Oecusse facilitated 150 requests from CCT for 450 buffaloes valued at almost $67,000.

Since the border with West Timor was sealed, trade with Indonesia has decreased. However, even selling goods locally is tricky given the dire state of the roads and lack of access to transport and communications.

Travel to West Timor requires a trip to Dili for a passport and visa. Most farmers see little incentive to step up production but the government plans to counter this by setting up a district-based cooperative.

“We help some of them with connections so they can lobby the UN or other international agencies to sell the local products,” said Joseph Hornai, PDT’s representative in Oecusse.

Health matters

According to government data, more than three-fifths of children under five in Oecusse are undernourished and 92 of every 1,000 children under five will die. Infrastructure is barely existent and rural communities get water three times a week for two hours creating a dependency on rainwater, which causes problems during the dry months from April to November.

Furthermore, only five of 19 villages have electricity for at most a few hours a day.

MEMORIES OF A YOUNG BOY IN A LONG STRUGGLE

2010-03-14T13:01:00.000+10:00

(by Father José Câncio Costa Gomes) - PART II: CONFLICTS AMONG THE POLITICAL PARTIES (1975)

Conflicts among the Timorese political parties in 1975 became background for the breaking-out of war together with the Indonesian occupation over than two decades or about one third century. In my opinion, such a division among the Timorese had opened the door for the military invasion, which caused a great lost. That so long period of war ended up with the blooded referendum in 1999 organized by the United Nations. Such a long occupation seems like a violent storm, which shook the whole East Timor, killing and threatening to annihilate many things such as properties and some kinds of fauna (like cockatoo) and flora (like sandalwood); even some families left nothing at all, letting no one behind that could tell their history anymore. Thus it was an experience of lost for us Timorese in general. The circumstances at those moments had built up various patterns of life, which aggravated bad custom and culture of death. Shortly, the war created confusions, caused damages and great lost. It had left behind many orphans and widows, even some families were vanished as I mention above; we may take examples from the blooded and mortal incidents at the tiny village of Crarás in Viqueque and in the valley of death at Lalene mountain in Manatuto, or else numerous incidents around the mountain of Matebian burying many people with their respective families inside the caves screaming till death, and many other unknown incidents all over East Timor at those years.

The invasion was the logical consequence of the division among the Timorese people. The right attitude to evaluate our past is self-introspection, looking deeply into ourselves, not just pointing fingers at others. Actually we were the ones created conditions for the invasion and the lost. Such a long and bitter experience became our black history. Therefore, although the Sun has already risen the past still remains in us, especially we who had been hiding in the forest and mountain caves and valleys. Everything is recorded in the memory as a dream and left in the mind, or body, as scars. So the past gives us memories, the present gives us challenges and opportunities, and yet the future gives us hope.

1) The Revolt of the “Timorese Democratic Union Party” (UDT/1975)

Usually every afternoon till late night falls at the tiny village, where I was born, was very quiet, peaceful and friendly. Fresh air caused by soft wind blowing down hillsides was a long lasting memory for me. The said village has been known as a peaceful and fertile land surrounded by the springs of water that make it forever green. It´s known as “Bucoli”, derived from the compound word “Boku-oli”, which means very fertile. This name exactly corresponds to such a reality. As usual in every afternoon children were roaming around, telling tales, jumping here and there like the deer beside both springs of water along the main road from Dili to Baucau, playing in the fields nearby while waiting for time to dine and to sleep. Many adults were engaging in talking while taking bath and dealing with their business. Ladies with young girls were passing back and forth to fetch water for the household needs. Gentlemen with young boys also had their own business for funs. Everybody enjoyed life together around both sources of life after the whole day exposing himself/herself to the Sun as usual for the life of farmers. It was the only means for funs of the villagers at those times because there was neither TV nor any other means which could provide respective funs for us, except some radios in a couple of houses. After enjoying funs together we went back home lulling eyes to sleep in order to welcome the next day. Mums sang lullaby to have babies get asleep on their laps before laying them down on the bed. As a little boy at the age below ten (10), I used to roam around looking for my playmate friends.

Such an amazing situation, which was full of joy and friendship, suddenly changed into a horror just in a glimpse at one night. At about 8 to 9 o´clock pm in a certain evening, I suddenly heard people were screaming, awaking cocks and hens even birds sleeping on trees, dogs were barking so noisy here and there, some crying cats were heard from afar, as if it had been the end of the world. Two cars came from Baucau loaded with people unknown who identified themselves as members of the Timorese Union Democratic Party (UDT). It was really frightening and horrible night. They shook the villagers of Bucoli with terrors in that blind night. They did so because the loving village then was the center of the FRETILIN movement (Frente Revolucionario de Timor Leste Independente or Revolutionary front of the East Timor Independent), which was considered as the opposition party. Both political parties were opposing each other in ideologies and principles, though they had the same objectives for the independence of Timor Portuguese sooner or later. The UDT party intended to be union with Portugal, actual government then, while waiting for the process toward freedom at last as an independent country, and the FRETILIN party intended to have an immediate independence for East Timor.

Stones were flying overhead at that blind night started in front of the Catholic Elementary School, where I began to learn how to read and to write, down to the well-spring (named “Waisemu”), where we gathered for relaxation. I fled to the side of another spring of water called “Kobu-wai”. People were insulting one another and suddenly gunfire was exploded, with about 2 or 3 bullets. I heard someone crying for help. It was really a pity for us kids, who were still with runny-nose, fleeing scatter in order to escape from the trouble. Then, with fear I didn´t realize anymore where the two cars going to.

That was the beginning of conflicts at the Bucoli village, started provocation from the Democratic Union Party (UDT). They (members of UDT party) destroyed our place for funs and turning it to the place of horror. After several days, there appeared a multitude of crowd carrying along with them some weapons, including several Portuguese made machine guns (G3 and Mauzer), I really didn´t know how many of them. They came from Baucau to attack Bucoli, burning houses nearby the main road linking Dili with Baucau and other two eastern districts of Lospalos and Viqueque. Their principal opponents were the leaders of the FRETILIN. However, they were also killing animals, and robbing every valuable thing owned by the villagers. They named themselves “scorpion of UDT from Gariwai” (Sakunar Gariwai UDT). Gariwai is a village situated in the mid-road from Baucau to Venilale (a sub-district of Baucau). I myself didn´t see the guys, I only heard some gun-shots over the school and saw smoke flying into the sky. We had to evacuate to the nearby village sides in order to hide ourselves. It had happened during the whole day from morning around 9 o´clock till the Sun set down. Another nightmare then, for the first time we had overnight in the jungle under a cave. We came back home in the following morning, after Daddy inquired Mr. Ezequiel, who was a member of the UDT party then, about the situation. Usually in the tiny village people are familiar to one another, related/closed to one another. It was an advantage to facilitate information at that moment.

The following day we returned home seeing the house remained firm, they didn´t burn. However, everything was scattered over here and there under the house and around the courtyard, some valuable things we had left behind were carried away by the attackers, either the UDT militants or the opportunist thieves. A big water-filter, made of limestone, including a big suitcase owned by our grandmother (Dad´s mother), full of cottons ready to weave for traditional cloth, all disappeared at once. Those cottons were very expensive in East Timor then, even at the present day. Ladies at that village were screaming and crying because of the lost. That was the consequence of the coup of the UDT party. At that moment I heard people used to sing “Fahi Luhan Bucoli, Lelang UDT, and Tabaku Caicido, Lanu UDT” (means, piggeries of Bucoli were emptied by the UDT, and Tobacco of Caicido drunk the UDT).

Days had gone and now then came other moments with uncertainties. Once in a beautiful day, exactly when the Sun was breaking into the sky, a crowd of the Catholic faithful gathered in the Church to pray, as usual in every Sunday, suddenly a pick-up jeep loaded with about five guys carrying 2 or 3 machine guns, known as G3 left by the Portuguese, arrived from Baucau. One of them was familiar to me. Jumping out from the car they immediately approached Daddy and invited him entering the car and they brought him to Baucau in order to be interrogated and jailed, because Daddy was the FRETILIN delegate then at that village. I still recall the place where they jailed Daddy together with other leaders of the FRETILIN movement from the whole district of Baucau. They put them together in a warehouse of a well-known Chinese, known as China Kelikai, in the central town of Baucau. Lately people used the place for rice cleaning. We were allowed to visit Daddy in the prison. I don´t know what really had happened to them in the jail because Daddy never told us about their lonely and bitter experiences there. He had kept everything in secret and it died with him. Perhaps some of them might be recalled but no one else left their memories behind even in oral form. I only describe what I remember.

2) The Revolt of the FRETILIN MOVEMENT (Frente Revolucionario de Timor Leste Independente)

One day, around midday, a strong crash continuously coming from the direction of the main road from Dili to Baucau. Experience of horror in the previous months was still fresh in my mind. We were really frightened by the burst of machine guns, as if there had been a great war. I used to sit down at our veranda counting cars at midday, in whatever occasion, when two, or at most three, buses, known as “carreira”, were lining up from Dili toward east. Our house was situated on a hilltop (around 500 to 600 meters above sea level), in the western side of the Church building, gazing at the Sea and the mountain of Ilimanu wonderfully. The gentle breeze from the sea was refreshing mind. Looking down to Vemasse, Laleia and Manatuto, were like viewing from an airplane above the sky. The landscape was really captivating the heart. Having a home on such a beautiful place was really a hypnotizing experience in our loving village. What happened at that day was a show of expression of joy from the FRETILIN movement. For me it was a sign of victory for them as well as a sign of farewell in a short time to come. I was deeply surprised by the great impact of their tremendous manifestation.

That day was something unusual, there were a lot of military trucks coming from Dili loaded with the FRETILIN troops. It was really very strange for us because during the control of UDT party the cars were rarely passing (running), even the four Chinese Bedford trucks invented to buses for transporting passengers daily from Dili to Baucau and other two districts (Viqueque and Lospalos), and vice versa, stopped operating. However, suddenly the situation was changed. Those Portuguese military trucks, full of men armed with automatic guns, were lining up from Wailakama (a smallest village in the border of Bucoli and Vemasse). That great day for the FRETILIN was really colored with expression of gunfire shooting to the sky of Bucoli. I have no idea at all how many bullets were fired up to the sky then. At first I was so scared and running to hide myself lying down in a cave under a small coconut tree. However, when the trucks were coming closer, I heard the passengers were singing the famous song of the FRETILIN, entitled “Foho Ramelau (Ramelau mountain, the highest mountain in East Timor),” and yelling “Viva FRETILIN” (long live FRETILIN) and the villagers were clapping hands, whistling and singing, and most of them were with the same yell running to welcome the troops. As a little and curious boy, though trembling then, I also jumped out from my hiding place running after the crowd through the main road passing the water spring toward them. Once arriving to the place where they stopped (at Waidei), exactly in front of the entrance to the house of the “Liurai Bucoli” (head of the village), I was in awe gazing at them recognizing many faces. As they gathered right at the entrance of the gate to the house of Vicente Reis (a main figure of the FRETILIN), they kept on singing and yelling until they left the place moving to attack Baucau occupied by the UDT party. The FRETILIN sympathizers were joining them dancing and singing loudly. It was an expression of joy celebrating their victory over the UDT party in Dili. They were singing and yelling so much so even to the point of losing their voices. I still recall the voice of “Tio Arturo”, the former catechist of Bucoli, who is our relative from Vemasse. He was very much alive then with a machine gun at hand (G3), even didn´t notice me there. They looked very tired then, but I admired with their spirit to keep on singing and yelling.

That was an amazing and joyful moment for the villagers of Bucoli. Then they were very much alive jumping like deer and cocks freed from the threat. It was the term of the villagers of Gariwai, who adhered to UDT party, to keep silence, from their part no one could move then. Once these soldiers arrived to Baucau firing at the UDT forces and caused them running in confusion letting the prisoners free. The FRETILIN troops caught most of the UDT leaders (organizers) and put them into prison where they jailed Daddy and his companions (comrades). In the following morning, Daddy was freed from jail coming back home and carrying along with him a short machine gun (pistola metralhadora).

There was an episode about a small boy insulting an old man in the prison. Both of them were relatives. The old man was related to the kid as grandfather, the uncle of his dad. As a powerless prisoner, he found himself insulted by a little kid still with runny nose. The kid shouted at the old man with a tone of playing down (blaming) on him. Such a shameless boy pointed finger at the old man and then once he saw the lunch, brought in from somewhere else in Baucau for the prisoners, he took advantage to approach the old man quietly taking meal with him without any invitation. The old man might be very much offended by the attitude of the boy, however, he didn´t care and not even realize about the matter. This happened to me once we visited the prisoners. I was the said boy and I could not remember anymore the old man, an uncle relative of my father.

During that short moment of the FRETILIN control the young FALINTIL were many gathering at Bucoli village, the center of the Movement, where resided our cousin Vicente Reis (the minister of foreign affairs then); he had become a well-known and vocal figure of the Movement since then until his death in Alas (southern coast). Among them, those faces I could still recall now were our cousin João Costa Pereira (alias Rakulaku), Nuno Horta (the younger brother of the actual President of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, Ramos Horta), Venancio (alias Oka), Valdemar, etc… Most of them (maybe all) died in the forest. As I recall most of the population of Bucoli were FRETILIN, except tio Januario Reis, alias tio Janu (deceased), and Miguel, alias Ba´a Mi (deceased), both were APUDETI (fought for autonomy within the Indonesia). These young politicians were really energetic and very much alive then. They used to sing famous songs and even some of them taught us to sing. All the teachers in the school were so excited with the change of power from the Portuguese to Timorese, though it was just in a shortest time.

I recall another episode told by Daddy one day. Once tio Janu took a rope giving it to his nephew Vicente Reis in order to tie him up, however, Vicente refused to do so. Then he turned to Daddy, who was his cousin, and said “Ernesto, please tie me up here!” However, once he approached his cousin, Daddy embraced him with tear saying nothing. It was really touching the heart of whoever might see them. Both of them were cousins because their grandmothers were siblings. The parties could divide them, or they were politically divided, but never divide their spirit and genetic codes which tied them together. Their sentiments as brothers were so strong then. That was also a common excellent attitude of the Bucoli villagers since then and now. The political parties might divide them into groups; however, as a family they remained attached to one another. As Waima´a people, the villagers of Bucoli don´t have mental attitude to destroy, unlike people from Gariwai and other villages of Makasa´e settings surrounding Baucau. One can notice such a virtue of that people during the UDT revolt; those of Gariwai came to Bucoli burning down and destroying many things, however, when the FRETILIN came into power no one from Bucoli was hateful towards them going to make revenge against the Gariwai people. Even during the Indonesian occupation the villagers of Bucoli never had any grave cases of annihilation or killing each other like what the other people did. There were several cases of killing, at least 4 villagers disappeared but the masterminds were people from outside.

The circumstance of joy at that moment of the FRETILIN control was going to be vanished in a short time. I could imagine later on that their expression of joy became nostalgia when people were dispelling to the countryside and scattering all over there and in abroad. It was really a farewell party, saying goodbye for a long period of time and many would never meet again in this world. The time was passing rapidly, and after the proclamation of the Independence on November 28, 1975 immediately just nine days (December 7, 1975) started another episode of life for the Timorese. When the baby country was just at the age of nine days, the Indonesian troops were invading it with land and marine troops supported by the air force with airplanes pouring down parachutists all over the airport of Baucau. Provocations had already begun since November the same year.

3) The APODETI Revolt and Simultaneous Indonesian Invasion

We can compare everything happened, then, as fogs or mists, which appeared too short, they suddenly vanished and were blown away by winds. Then appeared another huge darkest one, which was quite a long lasting together with lightening and thunders covering all over the tiny half Island. That is the history of a suffering people over than two decades. Nobody was expecting such an experience would happen so brutal. Talking about this episode of our history is quite long and was costly. It was unimaginable then that the situation would be going worst. Everything was running very fast. The change of political powers in an unreal competition caused damages and offered opportunities as well. Thus every circumstance, even the worst one, provides hope and a better outlook for the future. It´s all about faith, which is the only tool that creates hope in an uncertainty. I would like to describe boons and banes during those moments of struggling to survive in the past.

Once upon a time there was a boy sitting in an open air at night together with his siblings gazing to the sky counting the stars and inhaling tender breeze blowing friendly from the sea far away. The panorama of the sky and the sea beautified the village from afar in that calm evening. After the whole day working hard in the field, people tended to enjoy life together as a family not in front of the TV or computer but just sitting down together in the yard for relaxation. It was our experience after we had been terrified by the group named as scorpion of Gariwai previous months. The scorpion would bite us; however, its poison could never penetrate into our hearts. It caused pain but not death.

I am not politicizing it nor alluring it, but it´s merely a literary expression properly mine describing such an experience that had impressed me most. The wonderful nights we had shared moments of joy together not just counting the stars but also telling the stories and recalling sweet memories of Daddy, who had worked as the second line military service (segunda linha) in the border with Indonesia, or of mommy in the school. Each one of both told us children his or her memories, and sometimes talking about other things, though very rare they touched their love story. People at that time perceived love story as something very personal and taboo for the children. However, sometime they revealed and shared with us their experiences in order to educate us for better life. Almost every night was inspiring moment for us kids.

In another wonderful night we were horrified by a flash light like a star far away over the sea. We thought it was coming from any fishing boat. I myself imagined then as if it had been a giant glow-worm (firefly) flying over the northern sea of Caravela, a smallest sub-village of Vemasse, moving toward the seashore. I shouted in a loud voice, “Hey, it´s a giant flash light!” But the idea of any attack from the sea was far away from my mind. Then Daddy got inside the house carrying out his binocular to see what really was. He got used with it when they were on duty in border control guard of the Timor Portuguese. In our surprise Daddy identified that it was a big boat flashing light toward seashore, most probably a warship. It was the Indonesian warship propaganda alerting the immediate military invasion to the half Island (Timor Portuguese). In the following night the provocation became intensive with lancing long/medium range of artillery mortars and cannons toward coastal zones and mountain region as well. Everything was changed into nightmare. I saw several warships in the northern sea of the Baucau district. They were focusing the Airport of Baucau, which was the biggest one in East Timor even up to the present day. We had to rash out that blind night, with confusions, to a safety place named “Wailuu”. Then we came back home scarily in the morning. Since then every night there were always provocations from warships causing nightmares all the times. Our tremendous nights ended up with a day of doom caused by airplanes pouring down parachutists everywhere around the international airport of Baucau.

Exactly on the 7th day of December 1975, the Indonesian Marine-forces, known as TNI-AL (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut), invaded Wai-aka, one of Baucau´s coastal ports. They lanced heavy artilleries all over Baucau district causing panics at that night and we were fleeing to the safety place. Then, immediately in the next morning, December 8, at about 7 or 8 o´clock, the Indonesian airplanes flied toward the airport pouring down parachutists all over there. Everybody was running in confusions. As a kid at the age of six, I was very much scared and trembling. Over than tens of airplanes were flying overhead, including some helicopters, like eagles. As I recognized later on, they were not warplanes at all, however, they were frightening us though they were just ordinary airplanes. It was the first time that the Timorese sky was covered by numerous airplanes flying overhead. I didn´t notice any gunfire from them, except looking from afar something like colonies of ants were falling down from the sky over the airport. Later on I heard somebody said that many parachutists were scattered all over around the airport. I didn´t understand what parachutist was, so I didn´t care then. These parachutists were the ones fighting fiercely with the FRETILIN forces in the airport during the whole day. I was not sure then how they conquered the airport from the FRETILIN forces. It was like crazy, we had to move out from the house leaving our hometown behind.

http://forum-haksesuk.blogspot.com/2010/03/memories-of-young-boy-in-long-struggle.html

Human face of brutal memories in East Timor

2008-12-04T13:52:00.003+10:00

Northern Territory (Australia) News Human face of brutal memories ALYSSA BETTS December 4th, 2008 - MARIA da Silva Benfica's face is thinner and lined, but it has the same air of quietness that was captured in a black-and-white photo 31 years ago.

She was 23 then, sitting outside the Belide prison, one of the first to be imprisoned after the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, and on the receiving end of brutal treatment.

The photo is part of an exhibition for the Living Memory Video Archive project, which is on show at the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

Faces in black and white, slightly sepia-tinged or bold colour stare down the lens and come with short captions.

"Filomeno Ferreira at his trial in a Dili court, 1992," reads one.

The photo shows a thin man, standing rod-straight with jaw tight, dressed well and staring at something or someone outside of the camera's range - he was locked away for seven years for his role in organising a peaceful protest.

Maria and Filomeno are founding members of the project that is committing personal stories to public memory - for the East Timorese people and the world.

The project began when Darwin-based journalist Jill Jolliffe met up with survivors that she had reported on during their imprisonment.

The exhibition was launched on Monday and is showing until tomorrow at the Supreme Court, 9.30am-4pm daily.

MEMORIES: Former East Timorese political prisoner Maria da Silva Benfica with a photo of herself outside Belide Prison in 1997. Picture: CHLOE ERLICH

Castration ritual part of rural East Timor's oral history

2008-11-17T16:23:00.000+10:00

Submitted by Jesse Wright on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 05:15 Ossu Rua, East Timor - Jose da Silva thinks he's 70 years old, though he isn't sure. His hair is white and his eyes are cloudy and his teeth just aren't what they used to be.

He smiles, showing off gaps where teeth are missing and those that remain are wiggly and red from chewing betel nut. He says his teeth have failed him. He tells of a time, not so long ago, when he could still chew on the still-attached testicles of baby goats and sheep, once or twice a year. He did it for decades.

"It makes their horns longer and larger," da Silva said of the strange castration process called kapa in the local language. "If you don't do it, the goat won't get any bigger." The kapa process could involve snipping off the testicles of an animal with a sharp blade, but folks here say it's just as easy and less bloody to crush them between two flat boards or to give the testicles a good chew. These days da Silva said he's only got a few goats, none of which need to be castrated. If they did though, he'd make his son do it.

Da Silva sits on a bamboo platform over the dirt floor of his bamboo hut. His family surrounds him and everyone laughs. Kapa, far from an embarrassment, is hilarious. There's nothing secret or shameful about it. "You have to do it a week, maybe up to a month after they're born," he said. "If you just chew on the testicles, there's no blood." "They scream though," his daughter adds. "The goats and the sheep, they scream." His daughter's never done it; kapa is a man's job. Whenever male goats or sheep are born, the head of the household will decide whether to perform the kapa ritual. It must be done in the morning hours or in the afternoon or, they say, the animal will die. Prior to performing kapa, the goat or sheep's genitalia will be washed and then afterward, whether performed via the blade the board or tooth, the wounded animal's nether regions will be swabbed with a concoction of kerosene and coffee grounds.

Everyone swears the goats and sheep grow bigger. There are no known statistics which might indicate the prevalence of the kapa ritual, but those interviewed said it happens all over the country. Yet chewing testicles is limited to goats and sheep. Pigs are dirty and anything else is just too big. Joao da Silva (no immediate relation) lives down the road from the old man. He is 25, still too young to perform a kapa, though he has seen his own father chew on testicles and slice them off. One day he will do it, too.

"Both ways have advantages," he said. "If you use a blade you can wait until the goat or sheep is bigger, but biting is the best way. With biting you're not so put out. It's less work." (dpa)

Naldo Rei: Giving Voice To The Silenced in East Timor

2008-11-05T17:47:00.000+10:00

The Jakarta Post 26October 2008 Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta - Naldo Rei, 32, was a baby when he and his family fled to the jungles as Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975, starting a 24-year period of brutal oppression.

His formative years were spent in the jungles, where he used to ask his parents why they were living in the jungle like wild animals. His questions would bring tears to his parents' eyes, causing him to stop asking.

He grew up fighting for East Timor's independence from Indonesia, joining the clandestine resistance movement at the age of nine after the Indonesian military killed his father, who was a resistance fighter.

Constantly hiding, facing intimidation and torture, he was uncertain of whether he would survive the struggle. But he was sure of two things: One, that East Timor would gain independence; and two, if he did survive, he would write his story.

Almost a decade after East Timor's independence he published his heart-rending memoir Resistance: A Childhood Fighting for East Timor.

"I fought without thinking that I would live to see victory. However, my conscience said that the trees and the land belonged to East Timorese. I believed that my ancestors would protect me and the whole struggle for independence," he said.

"I've written since I was little. I wrote down every tragedy, every event, the things that happened to my friends and my family. I hid the documents and I told myself *I believe that one day I will write a book'," he said.

In his book he names himself kaer fatuk, a story teller for his people. "I carry their stories like heavy stones, forgetting nothing," he wrote in his book.

He survived despite being captured and imprisoned 15 times by the Indonesian military. He began working as a courier for the resistance movement when he was just nine years old.

"I had no choice. My father and his friends were murdered. If I didn't fight the killings would go on," he said.

"I wasn't afraid. I was captured when I was nine years old. I was electrocuted and slashed with razor blades. Overcoming that made me strong and I overcome fear," he said.

"Every morning I woke up, I faced life crueler than a nightmare. But I started to build courage. It's better to die than live like a dead person, that's why I fought," he said.

He left East Timor for Jakarta in 1995 to continue his struggle, and two years later he left Jakarta for Sydney to study international communications. He watched from Australia as East Timor gained independence and returned home in 2000.

He finished the book in 2005 after five years of writing and eventually published it this year."I wanted to be sure of every fact in my book," he said.

He was in Bali last week for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. On the sidelines of the festival, Naldo shared with The Jakarta Post his experience growing up as a resistance fighter, the unfinished grim chapter of relations between Indonesia and East Timor and his hopes for his country, while sitting on a couch in an open-air restaurant overlooking the valley and the hills in Ubud.

He wore a black shirt emblazoned with the symbol of East Timor with Timor Loro Sae written upon it. His long curly hair, a symbol of the resistance movement, was tied behind his back.

His tall and burly features were softened by his smile and warm eyes. He spoke calmly, without anger. He recounted the harrowing stories of the death of his father, of witnessing the human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian military against East Timorese, and of the torture he endured.

His book is a rare firsthand documentation of what happened during the occupation. "I want to tell the story so that people know what happened," he said.

Not many Indonesians know of the brutality with which their government occupied East Timor for 24 years.

In 1975, with the backing of the U.S. and the encouragement of Australia, Indonesia annexed East Timor and turned it into the (then) youngest -- the 27th province of Indonesia -- after 450 years of Portuguese colonization. According to a Security Council report, international and Timorese sources estimate that, of a population of less than 1 million, between 100,000 and 180,000 individuals died from conflict-related causes between 1974 and 1999.

These included the bloody Santa Cruz massacre in 1991, which Naldo recounts in his book. In this incident, the military fired on civilians attending a memorial service of a resistance fighter, killing 270 people.

The lack of knowledge about the incidence at the time may have been a result of the effectiveness of Suharto's regime at suppressing information and generating propaganda. These days, many are unaware purely through ignorance.

Indonesia seems to have closed the dark chapter of its relationship with East Timor with the release of a report this year from a bilateral truth commission.

The report concluded, without naming individuals, that Indonesia had carried out gross human rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 break for independence. President Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged this, but stopped short of offering a full apology for murders, torture and other crimes.

Yudhoyono said the intention of the report was only to uncover the truth so that the two sides could move forward in promoting friendship and reconciliation.

"It's a twisted way of thinking. How can we have reconciliation without justice being upheld? What about justice for the victims?" Naldo said.

For Naldo there will be no closing chapter until there is justice.

The future of his young independent country, which is marred by political unrest and infighting, lies in the hands of its leaders, who must "sit down together and solve the problems," he said.

The Forgotten

2008-11-05T08:29:00.000+10:00

Canberra Times (Australia) 15 October 2008

The village of Tai Tete is a 40-minute climb from the town of Maliana, in the west of East Timor.

The rangy figure of Joana Fatima leads us along a small track to her village. We walk past groves of lontar palm, clamber over black volcanic rocks and skirt around the grounds of a crumbling, Portuguese-era boarding school. As we get higher, the air thins and cools and we walk through shady stands of pine and pass small clusters of traditional thatched houses. Women pound rice and corn in waist-high wooden pestles; toothless dogs howl at us; children stare. Life up here is a marginal, hand-to-mouth existence. Most villagers live almost entirely outside the cash economy, surviving on whatever they can grow or the livestock they keep.

In such straitened circumstances, the generosity of Joana Fatima is all the more remarkable.

Throughout the 1990s, during the last decade of Timor's war of independence against Indonesia, Fatima played a crucial role as cook, comforter and way station for Timorese freedom fighters.

This humble, matter-of-fact woman fed and sheltered dozens of guerrillas in her one-room, thatched hut. The guerrillas would come down to Tai Tete under cover of darkness, looking for a feed, a place to rest or somewhere to recuperate if they were sick.

Some would eat, stay a few hours and go back to their hideouts; others would stay a night or two, lying low inside the hut during daylight hours.

No guerrilla was ever turned away, in spite of the enormous risks for Fatima and her family.

Had they been discovered, they would almost certainly have been interrogated and tortured.

"I could have been arrested, my husband could have been arrested or they could have come and taken my daughters," says Fatima.

"But we believed in the struggle for our homeland, that's why we did it."

The Timorese tradition of always serving guests the best food the host has placed an added burden on Fatima. She and her family ate meat once a month if they were lucky, but she says she would always try and rustle up a chicken or the choicest vegetables for her guests.

While Fatima was the first point of call for the guerrillas, she didn't operate alone. She was at the apex of a well-organised network of fellow villagers other families would contribute food when they could and local boys would act as security, on the look-out for Indonesian patrols. Even those families who didn't actively support the guerrilla effort were bound by an unspoken code of silence had any of them hinted to Indonesian informers, soldiers or intelligence about the night- time comings and goings, retribution would have been swift and unmerciful.

She still remembers most of the men she helped over the years, reeling off the names of well- known former freedom fighters such as Gilberto Brito, Lian Ba Oin, Rodak and Semo Sai.

And while she's proud of helping the guerrillas and the larger resistance effort, it's a pride tinged these days with disappointment.

While many of the former soldiers she fed are now on government pensions or have landed plum civil service jobs, she has received nothing for her troubles no recognition and no pension. Only one former guerrilla ever came back to thank her, bringing her a goat and a sack of rice.

Like most of her fellow villagers, Fatima still lives from the small crops she grows and the livestock she raises. She has little money.

Her youngest girl, a bright 14-year-old named Nanda, wants to board at an agricultural high school in a neighbouring town, but Fatima can't pay for books, transport or for the student hostel where Nanda would stay.

"We were happy to support the resistance and [the guerrillas who were] our children and our brothers," she says. "But they have a different life to us now, some of them are big guys. We don't know whether they remember us or not.

"It doesn't matter," she says matter-of-factly. "God is great.

The land here, the rocks, the fires that we used to cook on, they are our witnesses, they saw what we sacrificed."

The only other proof she has of dedication to the resistance effort is a receipt which she keeps carefully tucked away inside a plastic ID envelope she wears around her neck. She takes out the receipt, issued by the Council of National Resistance in April 1999, which calls on "patriots" from across Timor to give to the war effort. She and her husband each donated about $10, a considerable sum at the time. Not being able to sign, they put their thumbprints on the receipts and someone else has carefully printed their clandestine names Moving On (Lao Ona) and Our Struggle (Ita Nian) under their thumbprints. The former guerrilla who countersigned the receipt is now an MP in the coalition Government in Dili.

But the only link Fatima has with him nowadays is his signature on a carefully preserved receipt, testimony to her support for Timor's hard-won independence.

Letter: The long way home in Dili

2008-09-04T19:09:00.000+10:00

By Simon Roughneen in Dili for ISN Security Watch (03/09/08)

East Timor's capital now seems serene and lively, and a version of normality looms - but the country has confounded observers before.

The first thing a returnee to Dili notices upon emerging from the airport is nothing: Empty fields behind the fence across from the parking lot, where until recently hundreds of tents sheltering some of Timor's thousands of conflict-displaced once stood.

The camp was dangerous, inside and out, with political instability prompting riots, and the occasional projectile aimed at passing vehicles - the ubiquitous gleaming white UN SUVs a favorite target. Now only trees are left, a welcome sign that East Timor may be veering toward a long-awaited normality, even stability.

Six kilometers across the city, Marcelo has spent most of the past two years living in a tent just off Avenida Nicolau Lobato, close to restaurants and hotels used by Dili's plentiful expat aidworker and consultant contingent.

The government has allocated over US$4,000 to enable him to take his family home, with more promised, and replace the house burned down by gangs from the west of the country. A mid-2006 split in the army caused riots in Dili, and over 100,000 East Timorese, or over 10 percent of the population, were unable or afraid to return to the homes they had been driven from.
"My family is from the east, we were attacked by lorumonu," Marcelo told ISN Security Watch, referring to East Timorese from the western part of the country. The 2006 chaos was marked by a hitherto-unknown, for the most part, east-west divide that permeated the army and later polarized the country on regional lines.

Westerners in the army saw themselves as second-class cadres, with top positions going to easterners, who saw themselves as the revolutionary vanguard that did most to force an end to Indonesian rule. When hundreds of westerners were later dismissed from the army, violence ensued, leading to the resignation of prime minister Mari Alkatiri under intense international pressure, and saw police control revert to the UN Mission in East Timor.

The new house is in another district, close to Dili's international airport, and Marcelo admits "there's a lot to do to get that place fixed up." But he has time on his hands. With thousands of youth coming onto the job market each year, competition for the meager 400 openings that come up each year across the whole country (according to World Bank statistics) means that he is unlikely to find work soon.

"I'll drive a taxi," he predicts, joining the legions of cars on Dili's streets, where the meager fees charged barely cover the rising fuel costs that high oil prices bring. High oil prices, however, have funded Marcelo's homecoming.

"It is about time we received some help to go home. The government has plenty of money, but we don't see any of it," referring to Timor's over US$3 million in oil revenues accrued since 2005. The windfall is long-overdue to a population that endured one of the world's harshest military occupations since World War II. Some estimates putting the death toll from fighting, displacement, disease and malnutrition - caused by Indonesian brutality between 1975-99 - at around 200,000. Out of a 1975 population of around 750,000, the casualty count per capita possibly exceeds any conflict anywhere in the post-war era.

How that money is used, even if it can be used in the near future, remains to be seen. The socialist-lite FRETILIN government lost elections held in 2007, partly as its final year in power saw only 3 percent of projected budgetary outlay actually get spent, and partly due to recriminations left hanging from the 2006 violence.

The current government is an unwieldy four-party coalition under independence hero Xanana Gusmao, who led fighting against Indonesia from Timor's jungle-laden mountains, and later spent seven Mandela-like years in a Jakarta prison. However, Gusmao's halo has slipped of late, and his party only garnered 22 percent of votes in 2007, perhaps down to a controversial speech made during the 2006 crisis, when he appeared to legitimize the east-west divide.

Those elections passed off without real incident, though FRETILIN sought to undermine the government from the outset, invoking what it perceived as a disputed clause in the Timorese Constitution that it believed mandated FRETILIN to form a government, despite getting less than 30 percent of the vote. Pro-FRETILIN elements took to the streets, but the violence soon abated.

By early 2008, Dili's people began to relax once more, after the spate of curfews and ongoing tension prevalent since 2006. What might seem a reversion to type was sparked by an 11 February 2008 shoot-out at President Jose Ramos-Horta's house just outside the capital. Western rebel leader Alfredo Reinado led a group of his men to Dili in what was deemed a coup attempt. Ramos-Horta was shot and seriously wounded, while Gusmao's car was fired upon separately.

Dili went into lockdown once more, and people wondered exactly what took place that morning. No official verdict on events has been published, contradictory accounts have proliferated. Australian media published material from a report by Timor's main forensic scientist, which pointed, potentially, to a different version of events than that propounded by Ramos-Horta.
However, Dili seems serene, and potentially lively, with new eateries and watering-holes opening along its mountain-backdropped, white sand beaches. The town stays awake later at night, and with IDPs going home, a version of normality looms, not least as Reinado's death did not spark any political discord.

Still, East Timor has confounded observers before, lapsing into violence when this seemed unfeasible, and then running peaceful and valid elections when fears abounded that violence- or graft-ridden polls loomed.

Conspiracy theories and a welter of unexplained, incongruous links surrounding an alleged coup attempt and hit on the country's leading politicians may yet undermine the latest placid veneer.
It has taken Marcelo two years to escape from his IDP camp, a long wait on a short road home. Apropos, there may be more twists on the byway to peace yet for East Timor.

Church Mediates To Help Refugees

2008-08-04T10:25:00.001+10:00

July 30, 2008 TL05440.1508

DILI (UCAN) -- Martinho Gusmao's former neighbors do not want him back and refuse to allow him to rebuild his home, razed to the ground by rioters two years ago, he says.

So Gusmao and his family remain in a refugee camp near the Dili airport. "I am very sad, disappointed and suffer a lot because this kind of situation has forced me to live in tents for more than two years. I miss my home but how can we go home? Our neighbors do not accept us," he told UCA News on July 25.

Such animosity has its roots in the communal violence that erupted in Timor Leste in mid-2006, following the dismissal of more than one-third of the country's army. The dismissed soldiers, from the western part of the country, alleged discrimination. Tensions sparked by the dismissal degenerated into clashes between groups claiming to represent "easterners" and "westerners."

Groups armed with machetes, swords, knives and sticks fought on the streets, and at least 20 people died. Meanwhile, around 100,000 people, mostly in the Dili area, fled their homes to take refuge with relatives or in makeshift refugee camps, many of these set up at Catholic churches and centers.

Fear of youth violence haunts many of the people, mostly easterners, still living in the remaining camps. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor and Solidarity puts their number at 64,367, in 44 camps. These people say they worry that violence awaits them should they return home, if their house was not burned in the rioting. Many say westerners have occupied their homes. Read More...

Feeling Deceived by the National Parliament, Students threaten hunger strike

2008-07-03T20:55:00.000+10:00

DILI - The East Timor Students Forum is threatening hunger strikes because its members feel deceived by the National Parliament about the agreement to purchase luxury motor vehicles being reduced from 65 to 26 vehicles.

The threat was pubicised by the spokesperson for the ETSF, Sisto dos Santos, in a press conference at the East Timor National University Old Campus in Kaikoli, Dili on Wednesday (2/7).

Previously, ETSF demonstrated outside the national parliament for two days 11-12 June 2008) to demand that the national parliament cancel the purchase of luxury cars. The demonstration ended after there was an agreement that the national parliament would buy on 26 instead of 65 luxury cars. However, the national parliament secretly authorised a budget of US$1.400 thousand to buy 39 of the cars.

It is because they felt deceived (lied to) that the ETSF is going to distribute a film throughout the whole country about the national parliament’s action in respect of the agreement between the parliament and the students about the plan to reduce the luxury motor vehicle purchase.

He explained that the students forum will press the President, Jose Ramos Horta, to veto the ratifying budget which will take about 3% of the Petroleum Fund.

“If all of our demands are not heeded by the National Parliament, then the students will go on a hunger strike in front of the offices of the national parliament until parliament’s plan to buy the luxury cars is cancelled,” said Sisto.

Earlier, the President of [the National Parliament’s} Commission C on Economic, Financial and Anti-Corruption Affairs, Cecilio Caminha Freitas said that the 2008 ratifying budget was taken to the cabinet of the National Parliament and was in the sum of US$1.400 thousand to buy 39 luxury cars. It has already been registered and can not be disturbed again.

According to him, the cars are not to be owned by members of parliament but will be national parliament assets. That means that, after 5 years, all of the cars will be taken back.

At the same time, Andre da Costa (L-4), who was asked his opinion about the planned purchase of the motor vehicles, said that the principle of the resistance was to struggle to free the people from the shackles of colonialism for the sake of independence not to fight to own luxury cars.

“The struggle has achieved its objectives. But the people are still suffering hunger and there is no employment. Even the veterans have yet to receive a single cent. So the plan to buy luxury cars is an extravagance on top of the people’s suffering,” he added. gec

http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=13201&now=2008-07-03 translation wwright 030708

From East Timor Legal Information Site

Kiak Mesak's Story

2008-06-29T00:29:00.002+10:00

From East Timor: The poor still live in the struggle

For the 17 years he lived in the mountains, Jose Soares was known as “Kiak Mesak”, meaning “only the poor” in Tetun.

During Timor’s 24 years of occupation by the Indonesian armed forces, scores of Timorese fled to the mountains for protection, and to engage in guerrilla warfare against the invaders.

Kiak Mesak was a member of FALINTIL, the East Timorese guerrilla forces fighting for independence.

He speaks to me in Portuguese, now one of Timor’s official languages. It was banned by the Indonesians and embraced by FALINTIL, as it was the only language the Indonesians could not crack.

Describing his time in the mountains, Kiak Mesak says they were constantly moving as to not be discovered by the enemy.

For food, they would grow mostly tubers along the river’s edge but the Indonesians would destroy their crops, leaving them with little recourse and very hungry.

During those hungry days he would dream about coming down to an independent nation, free to cultivate his land.

His wife died while he was in the mountains. Many years afterwards he heard from neighbours that she had died of hunger.

They said the Indonesians had isolated her, made her life miserable, cutting her off from the rest of the community and shunning her because of her husband’s role in the guerrillas.

Now a 60-year-old widow, Kiak Mesak is receiving support to work his land from Caritas Baucau, one of CAFOD’s Timorese partners.

The project aims to support small farmers towards a sustainable livelihood by providing services and technical support to improve production.

Eking out an existence from agriculture is indeed challenging for many Timorese farmers. In a country where 80% of the population is engaged in agriculture - and one-third rely on subsistence production exclusively to meet their household food needs - the importance of such a project cannot be overstated.

Kiak Mesak grows mostly corn and rice and, what he does not consume, he sells. But the roads are bad and post-harvest management need to be improved.

“Every year I lose almost one-third of my harvest, because I can’t sell it.” he says. Looking at the bright orange cobs drying in the hot sun I wonder how many of these will end up in the rat’s belly.

I ask him if all those years in the mountains were worth the life he has now, to which he responds “the body can give up but not the heart”.

He had no choice but to fight for Timor. Now, only the poor still live in the struggle.

Dare Refugees appeal to return home

2008-06-27T22:00:00.000+10:00

Suara Timor Lorosa'e Edition 26 June 2008

DILI - The Dare Suco Chief, Jose dos Santos, says that 44 families who are refugees in the Dare Suco in the Sub-District of Vera Cruz have asked again that they return to their homes. “As the Suco chief, I have delivered their request to the government through the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The answer was that the repatriation to their homes can only be done this coming July" said Jose when he met with Suara Timor Lorosa'e at the Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Solidarity in Kaikoli, Dili, on Wednesday (24/6).

According to Jose, the government should just fulfil that request and expedite the refugee return process" he added. “It's better if we do this when they ask for it themselves rather than we force them to return home which will give rise to problems" he added.

In the same tone, the Suco Chief of Kaikoli, Sub-District of Vera Cruz, Domingos Dias, said that as the local authority, he did not get any data from the ministry of social affairs and solidarity about the government's program for the return of refugees.

"The Suco and Aldeia Chiefs should have a copy of the refugee data as a resource to check for those refugees who have already gone home" he said.

Meanwhile, Baptista Soares, a refugee at the Kakaulido Seminary said that the data collection had not been accurate or transparent so when she checked, her name was not on the list.

It was said that to help secure the data, it would be better if the suco chief and the neighbourhood chief hold an archive so that if there is a mistake or confusion, there can be a check on whether a person is really a local resident or not through a register that is kept by the local authority.

Homecoming fraught with danger

2008-06-06T06:20:00.001+10:00

DILI, 5 June 2008 (IRIN) - At night Tomas Agusto and his family lie in their tent hoping nobody will set it alight. When he was moved out of the displacement camp in April, he was given US$4,500 to rebuild his house, but he is still too scared to do so. Agusto was moved out of the camp on the grounds of the national hospital in Dili, the capital, by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, after living there for nearly two years.

In early May, his family, their tent and other possessions were trucked back to the site of his former home in Becora, a suburb of the city. Agusto's house had been destroyed in the civil unrest that left more than 100,000 displaced throughout the country in 2006. "We're scared," he told IRIN. "If we build our house the neighbours will just burn it down again."

Agusto said he and a neighbouring family were the only easterners to have returned. Because much of the 2006 violence was triggered by hostile eastern and western factions, Agusto feels outnumbered. He told IRIN that neither he nor his neighbour would rebuild until more easterners returned. A few weeks after he moved back, a neighbourhood leader told him to get out, saying he was not welcome there. "[The leader] said the land was his and the people who lived here before couldn't come back," Agusto said.

Land tensions Land rights and residual tensions are a serious problem in Timor-Leste, according to Valentina Bacchin, return and reintegration officer with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She told IRIN Agusto's problem was not uncommon.

Although the violence in 2006 was ostensibly sparked by an implosion of the police and defence forces, unknown numbers of homes were simply razed by neighbours eager to oust newer residents. Those newcomers were principally from the east. Agusto said his family built their house in 1985 during the Indonesian occupation, when there were no land titles. He said he simply cleared some land and built a house. About 40 other families did the same thing. Every single one was destroyed. Squatter status Locals were quick to say their enmity was not the result of regional differences. They said eastern families were unpopular because they were squatters - even if they had lived in the same houses for a generation.

Gaspar da Silva, the neighbourhood leader in a section of Becora, recalled that up until the 1980s only one or two eastern families lived in his area. But soon after that the extended families came in from the hills and the neighbourhood was taken over by people who had no respect for local tradition, he said. Since 2006 their neighbourhood had been calmer, he added.

The government's solution to these tensions has been to hold dialogues between factions. However, Da Silva said while he took part in the talks, he did not believe in the process as it had gone nowhere. Traditional ceremonies Da Silva said he would accept former residents on two conditions: they could show a land title and they would participate in a "tuir adat", a traditional ceremony. "In the ceremony we would kill a cow or a goat and get the blood and mix it with palm wine and then all drink a cup of it," he said. "Then our problems will go away … that's our tradition." He might get his wish.

After organising dialogues with limited success, Estella Gusmao, the ministry's media officer, said last month the government had begun holding traditional mediation ceremonies. However, Gusmao added that serious disputes were better resolved by the courts. "If the people in the neighbourhood don't accept the families back, maybe they've had a problem with them in the past because they've committed crimes. These cases have to be taken to the police and then to trial because people have to follow law and order."

But Da Silva is suspicious of the law. "The law is for the important people and the smart people and that's it," he said. "We ignorant people don't understand any of it. But all of us, eastern and western Timorese alike, understand our traditional ceremonies." Agusto has participated in two government-orchestrated dialogues, but so far no consensus has been reached. He said he would consider a traditional ceremony, but his neighbours had not suggested it. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said he would like to see the remaining displacement camps cleared by the end of the year, but progress is slow and IOM's Bacchin told IRIN she was doubtful any lasting success could be achieved in such a short time. jw/bj/mw

Ambou: Head of Student Senate UNPAZ Technical Faculty

2008-06-05T11:42:00.002+10:00

The island of Atauro was a silent witness when a woman gave birth to a baby son. That baby was named Jose Reis alias Ambou. He was the fourth of six children of Joselino dos Reis (Maubara) and Paulina da Silva Reis (Same).

This husband and wife were on Atauro Island as detainees of the Indonesian military because of their involvement in the clandestine organization (the underground movement)

Can you imagine the conditions of detainees of the Indonesian military on Atauro Island? Ambou was an eyewitness to his father’s detention by the Indonesian military on Atauro Island. In a conversation with this newspaper’s reporter on the UNPAZ (Peace University) recently, Ambou said that he was born on Atauro Island on 15 March 1982 when Timor Timur (Timtim – the Indonesian abbreviation for the then 27th province of Indonesia) was still closed to the outside world.

After his father was released from military detention, they returned to Loes because his father had to work the land to meet the living needs of the family. Ambou entered Loes Primary School VIII. He then went to the Liquica Middle School and then the St Paul High School in Dili.
Since primary school, Ambou was a child singer. He always performed when the (Indonesian) Golkar Party (Golongan Karya) undertook campaigns in Liquica.

“When I was in primary school class IV, because I often sang, they called me to sing in Liquica. In the St Paul High School, I was also a finalist in the Radio and Television singing contest” he added.

Oddly, although called on as a child singer, Ambou aspired to become a soldier in a special unit of the Indonesian emergency forces known as Kopassus (Special Forces Command). But in the end, this hope was not realized.

Now, he is a student in semester 8 in the Technical Faculty (industry). “Now, I am an intern at East Timor Television,” he said. He added that he is the Head of the Technical Faculty Student Senate.

When a band from Jakarta (Indonesia), SLANK, comprised of Kaka, Bim-Bim, Ridho, Irvan, and Abde came to East Timor and played at the UNPAZ University, one of the band members, Bim-Bim, shook his hand. “I was proud to shake hands with someone from this group whose music is strong and which has millions of fans, including in East Timor,” he said It was not just Ambou who felt proud but the whole UNPAZ academic community was also proud because SLANK came to the UNPAZ campus. When on the UNPAZ campus, SLANK did cover versions of two traditional songs that are usually used by the UNPAZ Academic Board.

For the 2008 UNPAZ Idol, Ambou is the committee head. To ensure the success of this activity, Ambou and the General Coordinator, Joao Tilman and committee members are busy organizing everything for the 2008 UNPAZ Idol competition.

m.mau/oscar http://suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12982&now=2008-06-03 translation ww2008

Boss of Bus Juvinil Found Completely Naked & Dead

2008-06-02T14:50:00.005+10:00

VIQUEQUE - The boss of Bus Juvenil, Jacinto Amaral (73), on Wednesday (21/5) last, at about 20.38 local East Timor time, was found dead and completely naked in a kitchen owned by a husband and wife with the initials ALF dan DN, in the old Public Works Housing Estate in Beloi, Viqueque, about 40 metres from his house.

Information obtained from one of the children of the victim, Manecas, in Beloi, Viqueque, Tuesday (27/5) last, indicated that he was shocked to learn that his father was dead. According to him, it is not yet known for sure who the killer is but the suspects are those at the address of the husband and wife pair, ALF and DN. The thing is that on several occasions, the pair had borrowed money from the victim.

“It appears that the murder was planned and so we have asked the police to thoroughly investigate the case" he said overcome with grief. He added that he has the evidence of the loans.

However, he referred only to a loan amount of US$150 which was the last loan made by his father before he was murdered. “Many times they borrowed money from our father. There is evidence for all of the loans. We await the results of the police investigation. If the results of the investigation are not satisfactory, then we will give the loan evidence to the police," he said.

Since the murder, the Juvenil bus has not been operating its Viqueque-Dili service. The owner, who was also the owner of the Luminar Restaurant, was buried in the Beloi Pubic Cemetery on Monday (26/5) last.

The Vice Commander of the Viqueque District Police, Under-Inspector Jose de Carvalho, said on Monday (26/5) last, that the investigation is complete and the suspected perpetrator is in detention in the Bekora Prison in Dili.

The chronology of this crime is as follows: At 7.15 pm, the wife of the suspect contacted her husband by mobile phone to ask him to come to their home. The two are separated in connection with a matter that is before the courts. When the husband arrived at the house, his wife was watching television in the home of a teacher who lives not far from their house. Oddly, although his wife was not at home, her husband did not look for her but went quietly into their house.

A few moments after the husband arrived at their house, DN (the wife) contacted the victim and asked him to come to the house. Without thinking too much of it, the victim went straight to DN's house. He did not know that DN's husband was already in the house. Strangely, when the victim arrived, DN escorted the victim to the kitchen. It is not known for sure what the purpose of DN's taking the victim into the kitchen was. It turns out that it was all planned and the victim was trapped. A short time after the victim and DN were in the kitchen, DN's husband emerged and came into the kitchen because he heard crockery breaking. He came out holding a wooden stick.

Using the stick, the suspect hit the victim's head 3 times, killing him.

The Commander of the Viqueque District Task Force, Agent Eduardo Reinado Guterres, said the murder committed by this husband and wife pair was planned. Eduardo said that before the victim was killed, there was a communication between the suspected husband and his wife through the telephone.

According to Eduardo, the police have already impounded 2 cars owned by ALF and DN as evidence in the case. The word is that the suspect wife is in a safe place to avoid the anger of the victim's family.

Based on other information obtained by this newspaper from a credible source, DN visited her husband in the Bekora prison on Tuesday (27/5).

car
http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12921&now=2008-05-29 translation ww2008

The murder of Sister Erminia & friends

2008-05-23T18:55:00.004+10:00

This story is taken from East Timor 1999 Crimes against Humanity A Report Commissioned by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights by Geoffrey Robinson, University of California, Los Angeles, July 2003. Joni Marques was named in President Jose Ramos-Horta's 20 May 2008 Presidential Pardons Decree as qualifying for a reduction of his sentence for his crimes in 1999 - some of which are told in this horrifying story.

Joni Marques then ordered his men to set up a roadblock by placing large stones on the road. Some militiamen were posted on a nearby hill as a lookout, and others took up positions in a ditch with their weapons aimed up the road. Some witnesses testified in court that they knew that there was a plan to ambush the clergy’s vehicle.

One witness recalled that after setting up the roadblock, Joni Marques had said: “Now we will wait for the Sisters who will be coming towards Baucau…and when they come we will kill them all.”

At about 2:30 p.m. the same day, a gray four-wheel drive vehicle came into sight from the direction of Lautem heading west toward Baucau. There were eight people in the vehicle, including two nuns, three Brothers/Priests, a journalist and two other lay persons. When the vehicle stopped at the roadblock, Joni Marques and two other militiamen opened fire on it with their automatic weapons, instantly killing the driver and some of the passengers.

As one of the surviving passengers tried to get out of the vehicle, a militiaman grabbed him and dragged him to the river where he was shot and killed. The same militiaman poured petrol over three other survivors and lit them on fire. One of the three ran from the car to the river, where Joni Marques and another man shot and killed him.

One of the nuns got out of the vehicle and knelt down by the roadside to pray. As she prayed, a militiaman (Horacio) slashed her with a machete. Another militiamen (Pedro da Costa) testified that he had yelled “Don’t kill a Sister!” but that Joni Marques had replied “Kill them all! They are all CNRT!” A militiaman then picked up Sister Erminia and threw her in the river, before shooting her twice. At the trial, a witness testified:

“I noticed a nun sitting beside a [ditch]. There was a body beside the nun. I noticed the cap of the nun was on her shoulder. The nun talked to me in Tetum. I cannot remember all the words, but I remember she was saying ‘Oh! God!’”

At about this time, Joni Marques ordered his men to push the clergy’s vehicle into the river. Several witnesses testified that he shouted: “Come here and push the car, you mother fuckers!” The men did so, though one person was still inside the vehicle. When the person got out of the car, he was shot and killed.

Gregorio Lobo Pinto: Former Sub-District Head of Ossu, Now Rector of Unital

2008-05-21T15:41:00.006+10:00

If nothing gets in the way, the Oriental University (Unital) will graduate about 200 students this coming October. Perhaps this news will lighten the worries of parents about the status and quality of the East Timor Oriental University. The thing is that, apart from not yet having been accredited by the Democratic Republic of East Timor government, its name is less well known compared to other private institutions of learning, such as the Peace University (Unpaz) or the Dili University (Undil) and other private universities. However, the founders of this university are fighters for the independence of East Timor. They are Colonel Lere Anan Timor, Maunana, Mario de Sousa Guterres da Silva alias Nunura, Matos, andSamba 9. Due to the ill health of Samba 9, he was replaced by Nixon.

The purpose of the establishment of this university was to help veterans who were not financially able to pay for their children to go to state or private universities where fees are relatively high. Unfortunately, this university which is now headed by Gregorio Lobo Pinto, has not had any attention from the government even though the contribution of the veterans to independence is sufficiently great. To learn more about the existence of Unital, on last Saturday (17/5), a reporter from this newspaper met with the Rector, Gregorio Lobo Pinto in his office on campus in Bekora. He was accompanied by the Vice Head of the Foundation, Mario de Sousa Guterres da Silva. According to Gregorio, although the university he runs has not yet been accredited by the government, its creation was not illegal because from the beginning, it was known about by the Minister for Education and Culture at the time, Armindo Maia, MPhil.

“The accreditation team from the education ministry has already come and asked us several questions about the university. We explained in detail about the background and purpose of the university. So now we await the results," said Gregorio.

Unital was formally founded in 2002. At the start, the Unital Campus was in Pantai Kelapa (Coconut Beach - trans.note). But the building that was used was needed by the government so they forced us to move to Bekora. The government authorised the Unital Foundation to use the old National Cultural Building in Bekora as our campus. Now, Unital has 600 students in 6 faculties that have 16 disciplines. The 6 faculties are Social Politics, Economy, Agriculture, Law, FKIP and Technology. The students are taught by 74 lecturers; 43 permanent and 31 non-permanent.

Of the 600 students, 206 have entered the thesis writing stage. The plan is to have the first graduation this October. “The finalist students are now studying English and Portuguese levels 1, 2, 3, and computer courses,” he said.

The former District Head of Ossu and Assistant III in Administrative and Financial Affairs of the Viqueque Regional Government Level II said that the campus has 16 lecture rooms which on average accommodate 40 students.“In the future, if we get accreditation from the government, we will enrol 1000 new students,” he affirmed.

WHO is Gregorio Lobo Pinto? This man, born in Uatocarbau on 12 March 1958, is not unknown to the East Timor community. In the Indonesian period, Gregorio was the Ossu District Head and Assistant III in the Administration and Financial Section of the Viqueque Regional Government. Husband to Emilia Mascarenhas, he started his basic education in Irabin, Uatocarbau, Viqueque. He then went to middle school in Dili (the Bishop of Madeiros Missionary School). In 1969, Gregorio entered the Technical School in Dili. After Portugese Timor was integrated with Indonesia, this son of Angelina (deceased) and Agapito did the middle school examinations. In 1982, this father of 6 children received a scholarship from the government for the Internal Governance Academy in South Sulawesi. After obtaining his Bachelor degree, Gregorio was placed directly in the Viqueque Regional Government. Five years later (1987), he got an opportunity to study at the Governance Science Institute in Jakarta. In 1990, Gregorio graduated with his Masters degree and got a position as Assistant III Administration and Finance in the Viqueque Regional Government.

On 10 February 1999, he fled to the forest and joined Falintil.

m.mau http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12841&now=2008-05-21 translation ww2008

Domingos Barreto jailed just for being at 12 November Demo

2008-05-20T19:30:00.009+10:00

During the Alkatiri government (2000 - 2006), the 12 November demonstration* that climaxed with the bloody tragedy in the Santa Cruz public cemetery in Dili was made a national political issue. Prime Minister Alkatiri and the Fretilin Party wanted to make “12 November” National Labor Day. Every component of the country, the community, the youth of East Timor (more so those who were involved with and became the victims of that bloody tragedy), as well as journalists (print and electronic) voiced strong opposition to this policy which was considered to be blind to history and intended to trivialise the struggle of the youth in the past.

In the end, the Alkatiri government gave in and agreed to the wishes of the youth to make that date National Youth Day. The demonstrators were very tense at that time - many of them are still alive. Including those who were imprisoned just because they were at the Santa Cruz tragedy.

One of them is Domingos Barreto, SH. At the time of the demonstration, Barreto was finishing his education at the Faculty of Law at the Sugyopranoto Catholic University in Semarang, Central Java from 1986 to 1993.

Although being in another's country, the clandestine struggle for the independence of this country did not die. It shone still. While in Semarang, he was actively involved in the underground movement. He joined the Renetil organisation that was set up by Fernando de Araujuo La Sama (now President of the National Parliament). Then, he was entrusted as the Secretary of Renetil for the Semarang region, Central Java. In the resistence period, Renetil was the one organisation that could muster all the might of the youth in East Timor as well as in Indonesia. Its members were actively involved in several demonstrations in Jakarta and Dili, the most horrifying of which happened on 12 November 1991.

Barreto was one of those involved and his movements were known to the TNI (Indonesian military) intelligence and the civil intelligence that supported the TNI. “After that event, I was arrested and imprisoned for one year in Jakarta because I was involved in the 12 November demonstration which ended in the bloody tragedy in Santa Cruz,” said Domingos Barreto.

Barreto was born in Bobonaro on 21 April 1963. The second of 8 children of Joao Barreto and Ana de Jesus Cardoso Sousa. In the Portuguese Timor period, he successfully completed his education up to level 4 class in 1974. After the Indonesian military invasion in 1975 he continued his education at the Merah Putih State Primary School in Bobonaro, finishing in 1979.

He then completed his middle education at the State Middle School I in Maliana in 1982 then the Becora State High School. He graduated with his Bachelor degree from the Sugyopranoto Catholic University in 1995 and returned to work as a civil servant in the East Timor Provincial Office of the (Indonesian) National Family Planning Coordinating Body until the territory separated from Indonesia and became a new nation in 1999.

He married his chosen lady Zelia Soares Henriques in January 2000 just after East Timor became independent. In March 2000, he was appointed as a prosecutor and not long after that he was entrusted as the Chief Prosecutor for the District of Baucau until 2004. He attended training in Portugal for 3 months and after returning became a member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary for 5 years (2003-2007). He then attended education at the Centre for Judicial Development in Dili for 2 years and 6 months. After that, he, along with 8 of his colleagues, were appointed as prosecutors on 21 June 2007. He was subsequently appointed as the prosecutor in the Oecusse District Prosecution Service where he is now.

armandina moniz http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12740&now=2008-05-08 translation ww2008 Trans. note - At the 12 November 1991 demonstration by students in East Timor at the funeral of one of their colleagues who was murdered by the Indonesian security forces, the Indonesian military opened fire on the mourners in the grounds of the Santa Cruz cemetery in central Dili killing hundreds. After what remained of the crowd had fled, soldiers then swept through the cemetery killing the wounded who could not escape. The location of the graves of the many who were killed at this event is still not publicly known. This event became known as the Santa Cruz Massacre. It marks one of the darkest days of the illegal occupation of East Timor by Indonesia. Later, only a handful of junior military members were lightly sanctioned but many Timorese were arrested, detained and tortured for their brave resistance to the tyrannical Indonesian rule which left near 200 000 East Timorese dead.

Sacrifice for Independence

2008-05-19T20:29:00.005+10:00

Forum Tau Matan (FTM) is already identified with the life of a man whose full name is João Soares Reis Pequinho. He is the founder of this NGO that is active in the humanitarian field.

Beginning with his bitter experience during the Indonesian occupation, the heart of this man is empassioned to do something for this new state and country. “We developed this program to illustrate my life's vision and the program is more focused on monitoring police and prison cells with the objective of combating the occurrence of the torture of people who are arrested and those under detention in cells. All of this begins from my experiences in the past because I do not want this to happen again to anyone else,” he said.

This child of Virginia Soares and Jose Borges entered the Kamea State Primary School (1984-1990), State Middle School III (1990-1993), then to State High School III, but one year later moved to Liquica and started at the Liquica State High School (1996)

He then continued his schooling at the Environmental Health Academy until 1999. Previously, he had already been involved in clandestine activities, namely, fund raising for Falintil (Armed Forces for an Independent East Timor). He also fell into practical politics when he became involved with the independence campaign. However, his involvement in the anti-Indonesian student front made Joao leave his studies as he was arrested when attending a secret meeting at the Hera Polytechnical College. The result was that in January 1998, Joao occupied a cell. Later, Joao was detained in (Indonesian army battalion) Barracks 744 in Taibessi. From the Barracks 744 in Taibessi, Joao was taken to the Kopassus (Indonesian Special Forces) Barracks in Kolmera. “I was moved from one place to another and eventually detained for 9 months in Bekora (prison) and 3 months in the Balide Cells. I was only released in February 1999,” he added.

This man, born in Laclubar (District of Manatuto) on 3 March 1976, was detained in one place and another. During that time, this father of 3 children underwent much suffering and torture from the Indonesian security apparatus.

“All that became my motivation to do something that would benefit this country and state,” he said. During 2001-2003, he worked for the UN (Human Rights Unit). He learnt many things because he wanted to set up an NGO. That wish was finally realised and on 12 December 2003, FTM was established.

“In the first year, we focused ourselves monitoring police and prison cells. He became the manager of FTM with 9 staff (4 women and 5 men) Now, FTM continues to develop and advance. This husband of Ivonia de Lima is active doing courses in the English language and administration and is also participating in the IOM's program on the Prevention of Trafficking of Timorese Women.

He also used to work in Yayasan HAK when it was headed by Aniceto Guterres Lopes and became its organiser. This fourth child of 8 undertook special monitoring of violence committed by the police and also worked in police training. In addition, he was involved in a working group on strengthening the capacity of the East Timor National Police.

“The joys and sorrows of working in the FTM NGO make it interesting enough because there are good things and bad. But I feel satisfied because I have been able to run this organisation for 4 years. The sorrows are greater than the joys" he added, smiling.

natalia/efigenia Suara Timor Lorosae http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12624&now=2008-04-25 translation ww2008

Izaura's home destroyed by landslide

2008-05-18T00:31:00.003+10:00

A house owned by Izaura Gomes Faria that is located in the Fusam neighbourhood, Bairo Pite suburb, sub-district of Dom Eleixo (Dili District) was ruined by a natural disaster (landslide) that occurred at noon on Tuesday (22/4).

Although no one was killed, all of the owner's possessions were also hit by the landslide and were scattered about outside where the house stood. The bedroom and wardrobe were destroyed including the walls and roof of the house which were also scattered about in pieces.

This natural disaster caused the local residents to panic including this owner for fear that another landslide would come.

The disaster's victim, Izaura Gomes, when meeting with this newspaper, said that he hoped that the government would help him especially the department that deals with this kind of thing."Everything was destroyed. To fix it, we don't have the money. We hope the government can help us" said Izaura.

Izaura said that since the earthquake that struck East Timor a few days ago, he did not dare to sleep in the room in his house because the house, which is in the mountains, felt weak not like as usual. This fear is not without foundation because after an interval of several days since the earthquake, his house was covered by the landslide.

Izaura lives with 7 family members - his wife, children, his mother and a brother.

agi http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12588&now=2008-04-23 translation ww2008

At school - on the floor and with the goats

2008-05-18T00:29:00.004+10:00

The principle of Primary School III in Benunuk in the sub-district of Metinaro just to the east of Dili, Apolinario Manuel Luis Belo, says that the school he runs does not have enough desks and chairs so some of the students sit on the floor.

“Although our school does not have enough desks and chairs, the teaching-learning process is still smooth" said Apolinario when meeting the journalist of this newspaper in the Distict Office, Kaikoli, on Friday (18/4).It was also said that, apart from insufficient desks and chairs, the school is frequently ruined by the local community's animals, such as goats and cows.

According to Apolinario, there were 726 students registered at the school for the 2007/2008 school year. They are educated by 14 permanent classification 10 teachers, 3 contracted teachers and one honorary teacher (voluntary)The school has only 3 class rooms.

UNICEF assisted with 7 tents so some of the students were transferred to the tents. “A while ago, UNICEF assisted again with 14 tents. Each day the tents must be set up so that the children can sit in them and be taught," he added.

He said that all of these deficiencies had been reported to the Minister for Education and Culture. In 2006, a team from the education ministry did a survey and took pictures. However, until now, there has been no intervention to address these problems.“Not only that but several non-government organisations also collected data from the students and the teachers, but the outcome is the same," said Apolinario with a tone of disappointment.

Furthermore, based on the observations of this newspaper's journalist, this school is always surrounded by domestic livestock from the local community so that around the edges of the class room and inside the tents, there is always dung from the livestock. Every night, dozens of goats sleep on the porch of the school.

Gec http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12565&now=2008-04-22 translation ww2008

East Timor Law & Justice Bulletin - Latest legal news, information and analysis from Timor-Leste in English.

East Timor Law Journal - Towards the rule of law in Timor-Leste!

Paulino Amaral - We don't want to be refugees any more

2008-05-18T00:28:00.004+10:00

Although the refugees in the Kolmera Jardin are ready to leave the camp, some of the refugees still object because the government has forbidden them from living in their houses because there is a new project to be undertaken.

“Our house is not far from the Rapid Response Unit Headquarters in Fatuhada. Now, the government has forbidden us from living in that house. Where will my family go?" said Paulino in a community dialogue in Bairo Pite with the President of the Republic, Jose Ramos Horta on Thursday (15/5).

He asked this question to the President because he is confused after the government forbade him from returning to his original house. “I don't want to go from place to place. I am tired of being a refugee" he said.He added that he does not want to meet the same fate as refugees from the Guido Valadares National Hospital. When they went to return home to the former Police training centre in Kaikoli, they were refused by the police.

The Secretary of State for Social Assistance and Natural Disasters, Jacinto Rigoberto Gomes de Deus, said that refugees whose houses were noted in a government program for other development, were not permitted to return to those houses.

But they can stay at a temporary place to wait for the government program to build a new suburb.While those whose houses are not yet the subject of government intervention, they can go back to their original homes.

State Secretary Jacinto also announced to the whole community that previously lived in the old police training centres such as Kaikoli (next to the central office of the East Timor Electricity) or the one next to the old Mayor's office in Belarmino Lobo street, it is better if they find another place because these two locations are the subject of development by the government.

gec http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12792&now=2008-05-16 translation by ww2008

East Timor Law & Justice Bulletin - Latest legal news, information and analysis from Timor-Leste in English.

East Timor Law Journal - Towards the rule of law in Timor-Leste!

Mrs Artemicio goes to Parliament

2008-05-18T00:25:00.003+10:00

At the National Parliament Building in Dili on Wednesday, there came a woman from the town of Los Palos in the District of Lautem. Her name is Artemicia Rodriques Silva, a resident of the Kota Bemoris neighbourhood in the Village of Fuiloro, Sub-District of Lospalos.

She came carrying her child, who is still an infant. Her face was sad, her eyes clouded, occasionally gazing at the ceilings of the Parliament building, occasionally looking at the people's representatives, but not in a hurry to say what she wants to.

She is looking for a certain representative of the people whom she trusts very much and who is able to express her case which has impacted on her life for more than 5 years. She looks intently at the people's representatives one by one but remains quiet and calm. The person for whom she is looking has not yet arrived. After waiting for a long time, that person turns up. It is Engineer Mario Carrascalao, who is the President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). Artemicia has her own reasons why she must meet with Engineer Mario Viegas Carrascalao.

The reason is not because they are related and not because of politics. Certainly not. The reason is that she remembers Mario's commitment during the Indonesian period. For 10 years (1982 - 1992), as the Governor of Timor Timur (the then 27th province of Indonesia - trans. note), Mario cared very much for the poor. He cared very much for all of the woes of the people who were suffering.

He even secretly supported the youth of East Timor in their clandestine activities when the TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces) wanted to eradicate them. During his term of office, Mario made Friday the day for the "little people" to meet personally with him in his office in the Governor's Office (now the Government Palace). Through the Friday meetings, he helped many of the poor and really understood what the people needed. That is the main reason why Mrs. Artemicia came to the National Parliament yesterday.

Upon seeing Mario, she immediately went up to him and told him the problem that she has been experiencing. As is his character, Mario stopped immediately and asked her what her problem was. The problem is this. On 10 February 2002, her shop in the centre of Lospalos was burned down by a certain group. The shop building and all of its contents were burnt to ashes. She suffered about US$4000 in losses.

She lodged a complaint with the police asking them to pursue the perpetrators of the arson but the police have not been able to catch them. The case has been considered closed. She also took her case to the Lospalos Sub-District Administrator and the Lautem District Administrator. She asked the local administration to help lighten the burden that had struck her - at the least, to help her with a small amount of money to re-establish her shop. But the local administration paid her no attention whatsoever.

Artemicia said that after the arson, it was really hard for her family to live. "I have 9 children. All of them small. My husband, Yusuf Suba, has no job. I have no capital to re-open the shop. Since 2002, I have hoped that the district government would help me to reopen my business - but nothing. Until now, the district government has not given any attention to this" added Artemicia sadly.

During the Alkatiri government, when the National Parliament was presided over by Francisco Guterres alias Lu-Olo, she came to Dili. She met directly with Lu-Olo in the Parliament building to tell of the disaster that she experienced. But Lu-Olo just shrugged his shoulders and did nothing.

Then, in 2007, she returned to Dili and met with Estanislau da Silva (member of the Fretilin faction) to report her case to him. But that came to nothing too. On 14 May, she again came to the National Parliament building to meet with Mario Viegas Carraslao to tell him about the problem she has. In her heart, she believes that Mr. Mario can help to lighten the burden that she has borne for more than 5 years.

“I hope that Mr Mario will be the person who can help me at last. I believe that he gives great attention to the fate of little people like me" added Artemicia, full of hope.

car http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12790&now=2008-05-16 translation ww2008

East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin - Latest legal news, information and analysis from Timor-Leste in English.

The tragic death of Domingos Guterres Silva

2008-05-18T00:23:00.005+10:00

The fate of Domingos Guterres Silva (24) is truly tragic. Since childhood, he suffered from epilepsy so his appearance was not completely normal. He lived in Fatu Meta Surikmas. On 29 April last, at about 6.00 a.m., he walked from Fatu Meta Surikmas towards Beduku and Manleuana, and did not return home. His parents and siblings became worried and went out to look for him but could not find him.

After looking for a week, they found him in Beduku but he was not alive. It was rumoured that he had been murdered by ninjas in Beduku then buried not far from a house in Beduku Manleuana.On 9 May last, his family made a report to the Police station in Manleuana.

The police went to the location of the grave. Based on certain information, the police began an investigation to find out who the perpetrator of this murder was. They then exhumed the body. It turned out that the body of Domingos Guterres Silva had been sadistically tortured. His hands and feet were bound and he was buried upside down - his head downwards and his feet upwards. Banana trees had been planted on top of the grave so that it was difficult to see.

Based on rumours that developed, the police traced the perpetrators of this sadistic murder and eventually arrested 4 of 6 people strongly suspected of involvement in the murder. Two of the perpetrators are still being sought by the police. The body of Guterres was taken to the Guido Valadares National Hospital for autopsy and was returned to his family on Tuesday(12/5).

The family of the deceased said that information they obtained indicated that before being killed by ninjas, Guterres had asked for a drink of water from one of the perpetrators. He could not speak easily because of his epilepsy so he signed using his hands. It seems that at that moment, the perpetrator questioned Guterres but he could not answer. He could only respond using his hands. Whether it was by the Devil, the questioner, who had the initials JM, suddenly acted foolishly and badly. He called his 5 colleagues and afterwards they tied Guterres' hands and feet together and killed the disabled man with a samurai sword.

Guterres was born in 1974 in Dili to Francisco Guterres and Maria Marcal da Cruz. His brother, Joao Guteres Freitas, said that information that came to hand after this sadistic murder indicated that JM together with his colleagues murdered his disabled younger brother because they thought he was a ninja. “This is no reason. It is only an excuse to defend themselves. All his life, my brother could not speak clearly because he long suffered from epilepsy. If he wanted something, he would signal with his hands" added Joao.

He suffered epilepsysince he was small. He was mentally disabled but his body grew normally. He attended school until sixth year but in 1985 had to stop school because of his illness. His illness became worse until he could no longer speak normally. Prizaldo Almeida Translation ww2008 Original text in Indonesian at http://www.suaratimorlorosae.com/details.php?id=12773&now=2008-05-14

East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin