Children of the Resistance: The current situation in East Timor as seen through the eyes of two Australian tourists
By Rebecca Winters and Brian Kelly
Australians for a Free East Timor, 1996. 36 pp., $6
Review by Jon Lamb
Children of the Resistance is a collection of interviews and impressions by two Australian tourists who visited East Timor in May-June 1996 (they have used pseudonyms to prevent possible reprisals).
During their stay they spoke with people in the towns and villages and also managed to meet with guerillas from the resistance. They have dedicated this book to the people of East Timor, in particular to those who spoke to them at great risk.
In their writings they depict, graphically, the air of repression and suffering that exists throughout East Timor under the military occupation. Writing in a travel diary style, Winters and Kelly describe the overwhelming desire and determination of the Timorese for peace and freedom.
The opening chapter, "Independence or Death", describes a chance encounter with a youth activist which leads to a clandestine meeting with two guerilla commandos, Deker and Lasudo. The FALANTIL fighters appeal for continued solidarity from supporters in Australia:
"The best you can do from Australia is to keep campaigning, keep making publicity about East Timor", Deker says. "Let your government know you care. If there is more international pressure, if the UN resolutions are implemented — not just recommended — East Timor will be freed, the people will stop being taken away and tortured all the time, and we guerillas can leave the jungle and go back to our families.
"FALANTIL and the clandestine front within East Timor continue to fight, and will never give up; but without help from outside we can never hope to defeat Indonesia with its huge army."
Other meetings described in the book include a discussion with a parish priest and another interview with a FALANTIL fighter, as well as informal chats with children and youth. Despite the fear of the military and their ever watchful spies, the two travellers were able to meet and talk candidly with Timorese from varied walks of life.
Children of the Resistance is well worth the read and raises the question why, if two tourists can so easily see the brutal futility of the occupation, the Australian government persists in maintaining its deplorable position in relation to East Timor.
Copies of Children of the Resistance are available for $6 from Australians for a Free East Timor, PO Box 2155, Darwin NT 0801.