Suai Media Space

Today and tomorrow mark the Ninth Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre in which over 50 people were killed in Our Lady of Fatima Church in Suai, while up to 200 are said to have died in the Church grounds and the Unfinished Cathedral.

To mark the anniversary our film the Circle of Stones which is a call for justice for the people of East Timor and particularly Suai, will be uploaded to Suai Media Space.

A call for justice the film intercuts the re-enactment of the massacre with the ceremony around the Circle of Stones that grew outside the Church, that marks the place where the bodies of those killed were burned by the militia afterwards.

I video-taped this graffiti in July 2000 which was 11 months after the massacres that forced the whole population of Suai to flee to the hills in September 1999. I will post a video asap.

[Note: Click on a photo to get the ‘gallery’ to pop up then scroll through the gallery using the ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ buttons near the top on the sides.]

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This graffiti is all written in Indonesian - whereas now (2008) it is mostly in Tetun or Portuguese reflecting the real changes in the language being used daily and to whom the graffiti artists are addressing their comments.

A response by journalist Hamish Mcdonald in the Sydney Morning Herald to the news this week’s report of a joint Indonesia-East  Timor “Truth and Justice Commission” that has blurred the blame for
the horrors of 1999, in which some 1500 people died and the scorched earth campaign that followed.

This story contributes to the knowledge on this website about the murderers of Hilario Madeira and the others in Suai.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/flawed-truth-and-fatal-consequences/2008/07/18/1216163157029.html.

Father Hilario is always spoken of so well by everybody I meet. That was an outstanding man and an exemplary priest is testified to by his stand in Suai on the 5th of September, 1999. Father Hilario and the other priests knew they were to be attacked before it took place. Father Hilario kept people informed of what was happening on the ground as it happened and he and the other priests had sufficient time to leave Our Lady of Fatima Church and save their own lives, but they chose to stay and die with their congregation. By reputation he was also the kind of priest that did not see that it was necessary to destroy a culture in order to take up the beliefs of christianity. To the contrary the people of Suai were encouraged to maintain their culture and their language. This philosophy appeared to be  carried on by Father Rene Manubag when I was there in 2000. When there was important rituals and ceremonies taking place the women wore the tais and danced. When I saw a similar ceremonies in Dili and elsewhere the Timorese involved in the ceremony all wore  white gowns familiar to us in European Christian settings, and there certainly wasn’t any traditional dance. Where else cin East Timor could we have imagined that the ritual around the circle of stones on the 6th of September, 2000 on the First Anniversary of the Massacre could have taken place alongside the Catholic Mass? Anybody reading this who can tell us more about  Father Hilario, please, write to us.

In 2001, together with the staff of the St Kilda Library a group of us created a remembrance event in Pt Phillip  called the Circle of Stones for the 2nd Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre . I had made a short documentary about grief and justice filmed at the 1st Anniversary of the massacre titled the Circle of Stones which was screened at that event. (Note: Documentary to come Feb.2008))

The name came from the circle of stones that grew outside Our Lady of Fatima Church where the massacre took place. It is said fifty to two hundred people died in the Suai Church Massacre including three priests, Padre Hilario, Padre Dewato and Padre Soares. Art

The short film the Circle of Stones (1) and a short documentary about the 2nd Anniversary will be uploaded shortly. (February 2008)

Many more people died in the School grounds adjacent to the church in the Unfinished Cathedral and in the surrounding districts. There are many stories to be told by the Timorese about these events as they find enough peace to write their history. While we wait for those stories to emerge, I will post footage of theatre and performance mounted for the local and international community in Suai on September 6, 2000 on the occasion of the 1st Anniversary of the massacre. The short film the Circle of Stones (1) about grief and a call for justice will be uploaded under 2000 shortly. (February 2008)

We have taken the rocks or stones and the circles formed by them as inspiration for creating a conversation between the people of Pt Phillip, Melbourne, Australia or anywhere else, and the people of East Timor, Cova Lima, Suai.

In Conversation-rocks you will find posting threads that have taken their cue from the rocks painted for the 2nd Anniversary of the massacre.

Last night the Australian East Timor Association and many of its members celebrated the 32nd Anniversary of the Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor at the Spanish Club in Fitzroy an inner suburb of Melbourne. I was there as documentary-maker and friend of Suai.

One of the oldest and most respected of East Timor’s friends in solidarity for over thirty two years - David Scott was there at the dinner. David founded AETA and John Sinnot has run AETA for the same period of time. I have photographs of them which you can see in
as well as Ego Lemos and Salvador Castro performing for us. You will be able to read more about David Scott in the ‘Timor Ponies of Pt Phillip’ pages next year. And before that I will post a chapter from his book ‘Last Flight out of Dili’ which tells the story of Australia’s betrayal of East Timor in 1945.
I met Pedro Lebre of the famous Villa Harmonia in June 2005. In the short history of Villa Harmonia Pedro Lebre wrote for sms he mentioned that he first fled East Timor in 1974 , because he was in fear for his life. Pedro Lebre also gave me three poems. It seemed an appropriate act of remembrance to post his poems and his short history on this day 32 years afterwards. /category/events/

One of the tasks of this site is to help bring justice to the people of East Timor by keeping memories of the atrocities against them alive through ‘Acts of Remembrance’. My friendship with East Timor began with a massacre - the Suai Church Massacre. My first post on this website coincides with another very sad anniversary.

Veronica carrying her commemorative tais in a massive procession from St Motael Church to the Santa Cruz Cemetry November 12, 2000

This November 12, 2007 is the 15th Anniversary of the Santa Cruz Massacre. Follow this link to learn the published history www.etan.org/timor/SntaCRUZ.htm. This moment in East Timor’s history is particularly sad, for East Timor lost 271 young teenagers and students. Either dead or missing it left many people with the loss of all their children and no bodies around which to build a mourning process.

The woman in the procession carrying the tais is Veronica Pereira. In an extraordinary act of love and remembrance Veronica wove five tais with the names of all the youth who died or disappeared into them, to create an everlasting symbol of their sacrifice. The documentary about Veronica will be uploaded next year under the title ‘Returning the Tais’ to Timor.

Social Events
This weekend about twenty young Timorese who are in Melbourne are performing a play written by Filomena dos Reis that she describes as “telling the story of the Timorese youth of the past, present and future.“