Viqueque, November 12, 2024 (Média Democracia) – The November 12 incident occurred because on the night of October 28, Indonesian attack on the Motael church killed veteran Sebastião Gomes from Viqueque. At that time, Sebastião did not die alone but with several friends who did not want independence.
So, on October 28, Sebastião was killed at night by the Indonesian military who arrested more than 20 young people in the Motael church, after which many young people who lived in Motael began to flee to hide. Therefore, it caused many young people to commit violence just because they heard about Sebastião’s death in the Motael church which made the situation even more heated and made young people from 13 municipalities begin to gather to demonstrate and on this occasion many young people took advantage of it to bring flowers for the veteran Sebastião at the cemetery in Santa-cruz.
“When we were in AImutin we made a group called OJETIL our leader was Faustino “liurai-tasi”, so every group in Dili started painting banners. In the morning of November 11th the group leader had instructed me to tell Sebastião’s parents that tomorrow morning we would bring flowers to the Motael church but unfortunately at that time his father did not allow to bring flowers in the morning so I went back and told my group leader but he kept telling me to tell Sebastiào’s father then his father asked me whether there were many people or not to bring flowers to the church and I answered that there were many Timorese youth who had prepared.” Said the survivor of November 12, 1991
So in the morning of November 12, 1991, all the young people were at the Motael church before 06:00, at that time Father Recardo led the mass for almost 1 million people who participated.
After the mass was over, many young people on the street shouted “Viva Timor-Leste” to walk towards the cemetery. However, when they had just reached Merkadu Lama there was a small problem caused by several groups which resulted in one Indonesian soldier being injured, so many people ran but they immediately waited again to line up to walk towards the Santa-Cruz cemetery.
“When we arrived at the Santa-Cruz cemetery, many people entered the cemetery and some climbed the fence and held banners and continued to shout “Viva Timor-Leste” suddenly a car with the number 13 came carrying 8 Indonesian soldiers and they were not wearing clothes, only bare chested and one member jumped out of the car and got permission from the commander so they started shooting at the cemetery which made us start running out of the cemetery and many young people were injured and died. At that time, I ran and hid in a drain hole with a friend but that friend died immediately and I hid hearing a car coming and people shouting to stop shooting, so the Indonesian soldiers stopped shooting and entered the cemetery to beat the young people lying in the cemetery, I hid outside but they found me and I was immediately arrested with my friend and they took us to the car and started beating me then they took us to the Dare Lahane Hospital but they were not careful when they dropped us off they immediately threw us out of the car.” He said
At that time they took off all the clothes of women and men and they did not treat them properly but they only poured water and they did not anesthetize but immediately stitched our wounds. The young people who were hospitalized with a total of 91 people consisting of 4 women and 87 men for more than three months.
“I have been discharged from the hospital but still reported to Polvit Dili then to Comoro, after that I was thrown into Same prison for one month. On November 12, my family was under severe pressure from the Indonesian military especially the Timorese who did not want Timor-Leste to be independent, so they had to face torture and now I feel sick because on November 12 I was hit hard but the most important thing is that our country is independent but our people are not yet independent.” He added.
As a survivor of the November 12, 1991 incident, he asked the government leading this country to lead with love and kindness because this country has suffered a lot. Starting from the Portuguese colonial period for 450 years to the Indonesian colonial period for 24 years, many people have suffered, therefore we must with a good vision to be able to make changes for the lives of our people because our people have suffered until the 1991 election and some people decided to choose independence.
“Whichever government is leading, it must pay attention to the people well, don’t just listen to instructions from others to damage and destroy the people’s property, as survivor we see this, we feel hurt and we remember the time when Indonesia did that to Timor-Leste, therefore all parties are asked to pay attention to the common people so that they can also feel the era of independence, if not, then only those who previously did not want independence can enjoy it better than those who fought for independence.” He said.
As a survivor of the incident of November 12, 1991, he advised the youth throughout Timor-Leste to study hard because this country is waiting for all of you, if not you, who else, if not now, when else, you are the ones who must advance and lead this country so that its development will be better in the future.
Reported by : Nelfiano/Gutjer
Picture by : Gutjer