Suai Media Space

Chamot – co-ordinator of the Uma Media and YoMaTre has just uploaded this video from Suai. This is a historic moment in the history of the friendship that comes just one month after the 10th Anniversary of the massacre and the surround events that led to the formation of the friendship ten years ago.
Notisias Dokumentario Yo-Ma-Tre.
Nebe Kobertura iha fulan setembru 2009.

Find more videos like this on friends of suaimediaspace

Desleigh Kent a member of the Friends of Suai Committee has returned to Port Phillip after a trip to Suai with the English teachers with photographs of the Anniversary. The photographs show that as on the First Anniversary,  the remembrance ceremonies and prayers took place in the place where the massacre took place in Our Lady of Fatima Church, in front of that Church and under shade on the large grassy area in front of the unfinished cathedral.

The character and form of the remembrance symbols has changed over the years and the original circle of stones has been moved from the driveway in front of the Church to the side. The original Church that was rehabilitated after the massacre and the accompanying fire has been demolished and replaced with a new one.  Ergilio reported in a conversation on Skype that the people have stopped crying, and he is afraid that the story will be forgotten and justice is out of their reach. According to Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald article on the 7th September, The United Nation’s top human rights official Navanethem Pillay, says East Timor’s release of the Indonesian accused of crimes against humanity violates the country’s own constitution as well as UN Security Council resolutions rejecting impunity for genocide. Bere came across the border on a Visa issued by East Timor’s government, for his father’s funeral in August, in Cova Lima. When locals recognised him as one of the perpertrators of the atrocities in 1999 he was captured and handed over to the police, only to be released again on the orders of President Jose Ramos-Horta.

When approached by the local journalists in Suai for answers to why Martenus Bere was released Gusmao refused to answer them; a move that was very disappointing for the people who supported him and gave up their lives for Independence and democracy under his leadership.

According to the SMH Ms Pillay has asked the East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta for more information on the release of Bere. More -  http://www.smh.com.au/world/massacre-suspects-release-draws-warning-from-un-20090906-fcui.html

This short oral history with Senor Felix Adriano a carpenter in East Timor Suai, subtley conveys the impact of colonialism and the international competition for rights to the oil and gas reserves  in the Timor Sea on the life and language of a Timorese who was born in to Portuguese Timor. Senor Felix lived through the Indonesian invasion and saw Independence arrive in 1999, only to suffer further through the Suai Church Massacre until there came a time when his skills came to the fore again in the re-building of Suai in 2000. Check out the photograph of the finished building which is possibly the largest traditional structure in East Timor.

The story of the Massacre in song on the stage of the Suai Church on the First Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre, 6th September, 2000. Performed before the assembled crowd of friends and relatives gathered with the international community in remembrance of Black September 1999.

A unique glimpse of a young teenager (Armindo), telling his story in song – accompanying himself on a beautiful little home made ukelele.  Recorded  by the documentary-maker 7 months after the Suai Church Massacre on the verandah of a house rehabilitated for the use of Timor Aid.

For Tetun version – Fatuk Dadulas

Black Bullion gives a good hard poke at successive Australian Government policies towards East Timor. The film explains with some dark humour, Australia’s role in stealing wealth from it’s nearest and poorest neighbour, while thousands of grassroots Australians were working to rebuild friendship and trust with East Timorese people.

Black Bullion was made in 2003 in response to the Howard Government’s hard line on East Timor’s right to royalties from oil resources in the Timor Sea and other inhumane policies in a collaborative project produced by the documentary-maker TimeTo Go John

Black Bullion was made in 2003 in response to the Howard Government’s hard line on East Timor’s right to royalties from oil resources in the Timor Sea and other inhumane policies in a collaborative project produced by the documentary-maker TimeTo Go John

Lachlan McKenzie is a friend of ours and a friend to many Timorese. Lachlan went to Timor in about 2000 and ended up writing a book about Organic Farming with artist friends and an advocacy organisation for organic farming. I have to find out the name but I know Ego Lemos worked for it. Anyway here is a fun video sent by Lachie that was made by Free Range Studios.  Anyone want to translate it into tetun I’m willing to sub-title it or we can ask a student to do it for us maybe. But then how many Timorese farmers have seen Star Wars? Hmmm.

The little girl and little boy who recite their short histories of Timor Leste on the Ninth Anniversary of the Santa Cruz Massacre on November 12, 2000 in Portuguese and Tetun tell their own story.

Episodes 1 & 2

A Mother’s Lament at the Ninth Anniversary of the Santa Cruz Massacre comes as a surprise to everybody. When this woman burst from the crowd I think she spoke for many in the voice suppressed by the order of the day. Since I video taped this footage I learned that this woman lost three children in the Santa Cruz Massacre on November 12, 1991. Little wonder she felt justified in letting her feelings fly and appeals to God for a reason.

Episodes 1 & 3