Sunday 7 December was the fiftieth anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of Timor-Leste.
Many Sisters and other Josephites have been, and remain, involved with the Timorese people, with Mary MacKillop Today doing outstanding work there. They join with other religious orders and peoples of all faiths and none to pause and remember. We pray for the living and remember the dead as this milestone passes.
National remembrance of historical events is highly challenging when the nation involved is not the hero. In the case of Timor-Leste, two other historical events bookend this current milestone, and none of the three put Australia in a good light. There is the episode of the Australian soldiers in Timor in World War II in 1942 and the Australian negotiations with Timor-Leste over the resources of the Timor Sea in 2004-2006.
The 1975, invasion ushered in the twenty-four-year occupation that ended with the 1999 United Nations administered vote where 78.5% of the Timorese population claimed freedom. Around 158,000 Timorese had died violently in those years. Once Australians began to visit East Timor then, the stories began to emerge.
The World War II history became more well-known. The ANZAC legend was sorely tested as people found out about the almost incomprehensible Australian wartime involvement in Timor. A returned man once said: “The only people I can’t look in the eye are the Timorese”.
There had been 700 or so Australians who served in Timor in 1942. When they were recalled early in 1943, the Timorese had to face around 18,000 Japanese who were not at all happy that the locals had favoured the Aussies. The most conservative estimate of the Timorese death toll during the war is 40,000, out of a population of about 460,000.
Time moved on and the Indonesian invaders were seen off in 1999. When the Timorese then established themselves as a new nation, countless Australian friends threw themselves into being decent neighbours. The Sisters of Saint Joseph are proud to have been part of the upsurge of ordinary Australian people’s concern for the Timorese people.
However, the spying on the Timor Sea negotiations happened in 2004-2006. Four Australian spies, dressed as workmen, placed listening bugs in the walls of a Timorese government building, so that Australia would score huge revenue that now rightly belongs to the Timorese. The courage and honesty of one of the spies, Witness K, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, saved the day.
Josephites are among the countless Australians who face the true history and who not only assist the Timorese people but in so doing help to redeem our nation’s soul.
Read and learn more about Timor-Leste by reading Telling the Truth about Timor here (PDF).
Sr Susan Connelly