XANANA
XANANA – Leader of the Struggle for Independent Timor-Leste
by Sara Niner
(Australian Scholarly Publishing)
Reviewer: Andy Alcock
Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc
As a person who has been involved in the solidarity movement for East Timor since the middle of 1975, I was very excited to learn that Sara Niner had written a book about Jose Alexandre Gusmao or Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, the key leader of East Timor’s struggle for independence.
Many might say that there is already a plethora of books on East Timor and ask why is another one necessary? I feel that this book is different because it gets into the mind of the subject
and his views on the important historical events on the road to independence.
Dr Sara Niner has good credentials for writing such a book. She had edited Xanana’s book “To Resist is to Win”.
[I had the good fortune meet her at the Adelaide Writers' Week in 2000 during the book's launch there. I might say that she was kind enough to give me a copy for which I was very grateful]
Further, she was able to exchange letters with Xanana between 1997 – 1999 and then had a series of meetings with him in 1999 at the Salemba prison house that he was transferred to by the Indonesian authorities after about 7 years in Jakarta’s Cipinang Prison. These meetings were facilitated by Kirsty Sword who later became Xanana’s wife. She also had access to documents
from the East Timor News Agency which was headed up by Dennis Freney after the murder of Roger East by the Indonesians.
I think that Sara Niner has written a remarkable book about a very remarkable and courageous political leader. It traces his life from his birth until the time he became, first the President and then the Prime Minister of of an independent Timor Leste (TL). It also outlines his initial first involvement in the East Timorese independence movement through to the time he became its supreme commander and his days in prison after his capture in 1992.
The book gives a brief historical background to East Timor including the last days of Portugal’s colonial rule and Xanana’s family.
It tells how the young Xanana was not originally interested in politics, but became more interested as FRETILIN established some of its early social programs.
He was a public servant working in the Department of Finance (1971 – 74), but then decided to become a manual worker. His first political action was to lead fellow workers in a strike for improved pay. He was initially very reluctant to get involved in politics, but said that was FRETILIN who taught him to love his country and to serve its people.
On 28 November 1975, following the FRETILIN defeat of UDT forces during the brief civil war between August and September 1975 and the early Indonesian incursions during October and
November, when the FRETILIN leadership could see Indonesia’s full-scale invasion looming, it declared independence and the foundation of the Democratic Republic of East Timor (RDTL).
Xanana was not directly involved in the event, but took photographs of the proceedings.
Most of Niner’s book deals with Xanana’s role during the years of illegal Indonesian occupation.
In November 1978, Nicolau Lobato, the then popular leader of East Timor’s resistance was captured and shot by the Indonesian military (ABRI). After 3 years of war, 140,000 civilians were
encircled around Mt Matebian and the ABRI was in its final stage of its encirclement and annhilation campaign. By this time, Xanana had become politically responsible for the eastern zone
for the resistance.
The author describes the years between 1979 and 1981 as the long walk. By this time, the resistance was in the doldrums and Xanana moved from place to place in the eastern region of ET to meet resistance fighters to organise their efforts.
In doing so, he had to dodge ABRI units and attack them when he could. The guerilla fighters faced great hardships at this stage; they were
short of food and medicines and were affected by heavy rains and the tropical heat.
Many readers may find it difficulty following the movements of Xanana in this part of the book, but Niner provides some detailed maps which assist greatly to understand his constant
movements. This historical period of the independence struggle shows the determination and courage of Xanana. During this time, he was very sick. He suffered from malaria, chronic kidney problems and exhaustion, but whever he went ordinary East Timorese urged him to carry on the fight.
In March 1981, a national conference of the resistance was held at Maibai and Xanana, then almost 35, was unanimously chosen as leader . This meeting also established the National Council
of Revolutionary Resistance (Conselho da Resistencia Revolucionario Nacional or CRRN) and FRETILIN . This event was extremely important as it caused a revival in TL resistance.
The Indonesians responded with their Fence of Legs Operation (Pagar Betis – Operasi Kikis). Ten thousand ABRI personnel mobilised approximately 80,000 East Timorese males and forced them
to march in front of armed soldiers in two long lines – one from the west and the other from the east that moved towards each other in the centre of the terroitory. The aim was to flush out resistance fighterswhere March 1981 and finished with the massacre at Lacluta of 400 – 500 people including women and children. Many elderly men died as a result of the great physical demands put on them,
but the Fence of Legs also led to famine because it occurred at a time when rice should have been planted.
In October 1982, Xanana held a meeting with Mgr Martinho Lopes, the head of the Catholic Church in Timor. Xanana realised the importance of the church in providing support for the people and he
knew that Lopes was in a very precarious position in relation to ABRI as he was watched very closely. Elaborate security measures had to be made to bring the meeting about. Lopes was a supporter
of the resistance and managed to get much of its documents out of the country when he went abroad.
Up until that time, the FRETILIN leadership viewed their organisation as a Marxist Leninist one. Xanana increasingly saw that it was vital to keep the resistance as broad as possibe. Along with other
key leaders, he also saw the need to make changes to broaden the political support around the world.
This and the later changes in the structure of the resistance brought him into conflict with the FRETILIN hardliners and this has had political implications for cooperation between FRETILIN and the current
TL leadership. Sadly, this has also caused some problems with many in the Australian left who felt that FRETILIN was the vanguard party and that this should not have changed. I consider this very sad
because originally, it was largely the left in Australia was the main support for the East Timorese independence cause.
Niner tells how Xanana used his early days of leadership to communicate with ordinary Timorese. Using dates of significance to the Timorese, he released his recorded thoughts on audio cassette tapes.This was a good medium as so namy of the people were illiterate. He used this approach to communicate to the outside world including the UN. He described the various massacres that had occurred and would sometimes vent his rage against the “bastard Indonesian killing machine”, the assassin Suharto, the leaders of the capitalist countries (eg Australia, the US and Japan) which
supported Indonesia along with Timorese who collaborated with Indonesia.
He frequently listened to Radio Australia and the BBC to keep up with latest world events – especially the voting at the UN on the Indonesian occupation of TL.
From late 1982, FALINTIL had a number of victories and this led to ABRI commanders wanting to speak with local resistance leaders. This led to a meeting between Xanana and the Indonesian
commander, Colonel Purwanto, the Indonesian commander, in March 1983 which led to a peace until August of that year was a pivotal time for the resistance as as it was able to broker a peace until August.
During the negotiations that occurred at this time, the CRRN made the following demands:
*unconditional witdrawal of the TNI
* the entry of a UN peace keeping force
* the holding of a free consultation with the people
* the maintenance of FALINTIL to protect the people
Purwanto, in response, offered an autonomy package which the CRRN refused accept
While the peace lasted, people were able to visit guerilla camps and amazingly, football and volleyball matches were held between FALINTIL & TNI personnel
The resistance were able to consolidate by forging links with Timorese in Indonesian paramilitary units (hansips)
General Benny Murdani, the architect of the invasion of the RDTL, disagreed with the peace and called for FALINTIL to surrender and the peace stopped after Murdani announced the beginning of
Operasi Persatuan, the stepping up of ABRI numbers and a massacre occurred at Kraras. He also removed Purwanto.
Purwanto has recently been in the news again when he publicly admitted that the TNI were responsible for the deaths of the Balibo 5.
After this, we see the resistance face many problems. They were survinving on meagre food supplies like pickled nuts and flour from the palm tree. They drank coffee and tuak (palm wine)
on special occasions. Medical treatment was very basic and Niner recounts a very gruesome story of the removal of one of Xanana’s teeth by a vet using a stick and a mallet!
By March 1984, civilian morale was declining and in the midddle of that year, Xanana delivered his “What is National Unity” message. He discussed what he saw with the problems of having a
party with narrow political objectives or a broad front movement. This so angered some of the regional resistance leaders had a meeting & refused to meet with him, saying he had been corrupted
during the 1983 ceasefire.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika had an effect on the situation in ET because it led to the demise of the Cold War and the loss of US patronage for Suharto. Also, Xanana received a radio transmitter secretly smuggled in from Darwin and this meant that he was able to be more effectivly in contact with the outside world.
Xanana felt that it was important that reconciliation be made with UDT and in March 1986 he resigned from FRETILIN & the CNT (Convergence of National Timorese) was signed between UDT & FRETILIN.
In April 1986, he had an important meeting with Bishop Carlos Belo. he saw the need to promote National Unity to bring together all the various groups that were part of the resistance to the occupation – including RENETIL (student resistance) OBJECTIL (organisation of Young Catholic Students in ET), FALANTIL, Fretilin & UDT
He also felt it necessary that FALANTIL should not be under the political leadership of FRETILIN and that the whole resistance should not continue to be an ML type organisation as before
Some FRETILIN members have never forgiven him for this as it meant lessening the influence of FRETILIN in the resistance, but on New Year’s Eve of 1988 the CNRM was formed
National Council of Maubere Resistance Maubere sons of East Timor to broaden East Timorese unity face the realities of the new world order
Jose Ramos Horta, TL’s current president, also resigned from FRETILIN as did some other key members of the resistance abroad.
The CNRM formulated a new peace plan, which comprosed 3 stages which they wanted to be overseen by the UN:
* witdrawal of the TNI
* the disarming of FALINTIL and East Timorese conscripts in the TNI’s hansips
* the reorganisation of the ET army under Portuguese command
Then there would be a decolonisation program with Portugal overseeing a government of National Unity.
At this time Xanana started to liaise with solidarity activists abroad and the clandestine, mass disobedience movement expanded.
During the 1989 Pope’s visit indicated the effect of the clandestine resistance when there was a demonstration at the end of the mass at Taci Tolu attended by a crowd of 100,000. There were many visitors from outside TL who witnessed the event, but an international audience could see that East Timorese were most unhappy with the Indonesian occupation on their TV screens. The venue for the mass was strategic; Taci Tolu has special significance to the Timorese
as it is the site of mass graves that were placed there by the TNI.
Frequently after a massacre, the TNI would immediately remove bodies and place them in mass graves. Many people still do not
know the whereabouts of their loved ones who were victims of TNI massacres.
It was probably the reason why the independence celebrations in 2002 were there as well.
ABC journalist Robert Domm’s visit in September 1990. The interview showed Gusmao in a positive light. Domme described him as a leader in touch with the world who was also dearly loved by those he commanded.
The leadership of the TNI were furious and a long military offensive led by Warouw followed. The TNI concentrated on the area where they thought the interview had taken place.
Xanana was nearly captured by Indonesian soldiers and several FALANTIL fighters lost their lives. He was able to move around including going to Dili where he met Bishop Belo, the new leader of the Catholic Church inTL.
In 1991 a Portuguese Parliamentary delegation was to visit TL. Constancio Pinto, a prominent member of RENETIL was preparing several displays of popular support for the Portuguese in
consultation with Xanana. A young Timorese fellow told me that RENETIL members were prepared to make many sacrifices to show the world what conditions were like in TL.However, the visit was cancelled by the TNI because they objected to the inclusion of an Australian journalist, Jill Jolliffe. Jill had been working in Lisbon for a number of years and had written an importany historic book
on Timor, East Timor: Nationalism and Colonialism. There was no way she would be allowed to enter East Timor. Mysteriously, the Portuguese demanded that if Jolliffe could not go, then the visit was off. This would have pleased the TNI generals greatly.
However, the killing of a young activist, Sebastio Gomez, in the Motael Church in Dili provided the spark that unleashed a critical event in the history of the occupation. The funeral procession
for Gomez became a protest march and as it approached the Santa Cruz Cemetry, Indonesian soldiers hiding in the Indonesian so-called Heroes Cemetry fired machine guns into the unarmed protestors.
The Santa Cruz Massacre accounted for 271 deaths, but in the weeks that followed, the TNI rounded up witnesses and murdered them. Thanks to the quick thinking and courage of
Max Stahl, a British film maker and Alan Nairn and Amy Goodman, 2 US journalists who witnessed the carnage, the world soon knew about this latest TNI outrage.
I think it is true to say that this event was a definite turning point in the international support for East Timor’s independence struggle. Christian churches, in particular supported the solidarity movement far more strongly after that.
Xanana was staying not far from the cemetry and heard the machine gun fire. The carnage filled Xanana with deep despair and he questioned the continuation of the struggle despite the fact that over the years he felt he had to show less emotion when confronted with such tragedies if he was to carry out his task effectively.
The FALANTIL supreme commander also expressed a great deal of anger that the Portuguese delegation was cancelled. To him, it seemed that Portuguese authorities wanted an excuse not to visit East Timor.
Niner does not mention the Missao Paz em Timor (the East Timor Peace Mission) of March 1992 which was an international protest against the Santa Cruz Massacre.This was financed by the Portuguese public and led by a Portuguese academic, Professor António Pinto Magalhães of the University of Operto.
I was fortunate to be invited to participate. I am sure this solidarity action was undertaken by Portuguese who were ashamed of their government’s lack of support for East Timor. A vehicle ferry with the ominous name of the Lusitania Expresso, was hired to take an international contingent including the media from many countries to ET to protest the Santa Cruz Massacre and to lay wreathes at the cemetry. The Indonesian Navy blocked the LE from reaching East Timor’s shores, but this event again further publicised the East Timorese struggle world-wide.
A former Portuguese president General Ramalho Eanes participated as did a number of prominent Australians – Senator Gordon McIntosh, Shirley Shackleton, Victorian MP Jean McLean, some trade unionists, solidarity activists.
When I first visited TL in 2000 to attend the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor, I met many people who were grateful for this action because they said it made them realise that their struggle was not in vain.
Then Xanana’s whereabouts were detected by the TNI and he was captured. I remember this occasion well as CIET had its annual ET Independence dinner at which Robert Domm spoke.
During that weekend, ABC TV interviewed Robert in our loungeroom and filmed him while he tried to speak by phone to the officer in charge at the prison in Bali where he was being held.
The author describes Xanana’s life in Cipinang prison and how he was to meet many East Timorese and supporters of East Timorese independence from around the world including the Australia, Kirsty Sword , who did underground courier work for the Timorese resistance and who later was to become his wife.
Amongst those he met was Nelson Mandela (1997) who requested that Suharto set up a dinner meeting with Gusmao while he was visiting Indonesia. Suharto could hardly deny him this as Mandela was the undisputed of the Non Aligned Movement of nations a movement which grew out of the 1955 Afro Asia Conference in Bandung, which of course was hosted by President Sukarno, the man whom Suharto usurped in 1965.
Mandela indicated that he supported Timor’s independence struggle and advised Indonesia’s leaders to protect Xanana and release him. This was a very significant event which gave much prestige to the independence movement and Xanana, who was already being described as Asia’s Nelson Mandela.
This occurred just after Xanana had met with UN Envoy Jamsheed Marker and 8 months after Jose Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo received the Nobel Peace Priz. All of these events helped to legitimise Timor’s independence cause world-wide.
After Suharto’s fall during the 1998 the Asian financial crisis, B.J. Habibie became Indonesia’s third president. Indonesia by now was not in an economically good position to continue its costly war in TL. Xanana was involved in the move to have the independence referendum, but of course by then, other big players were involved and the referendum occurred in a very threatening climate for the Timorese people. The TNI had established a number of militias who were threatening, harassing and murdering those who wanted independence.
Western governments including Australia did nothing to halt the flow of arms destined for the militias that the TNI were bringing from West Timor across the border.
In February 1999, Xanana was moved to the Salemba prison house. Here, he had more freedom and from Niner’s description, the place appeared to become the home of a provisional Timorese government
He spent much of his time working on trying to get greater cooperation between the various East Timorese groups including UDT and FRETILIN. The CNRM became CNRT (the Council of National Timorese Resistance. he wrote much poetry and learned the art of painting while studying English and Indonesian and captaining the prison soccer team.
After Suhartos’ dictatorship crumbled in the wake of the 1998 Asian economic crisis, BJ Habibie became president. Then Xanana was even busier planning for the actions that the pro independence Timorese needed to take for the impening referendum sceduled for 30 August of the same year about their political future.
The result was that 78.5% of the population at home and abroad voted to be free of Indonesian rule. Thanks to the Indonesian and Australian governments, the referendum was carried out in the absence of a UN peace keeping force in a climate that was very menacing to the people and the UN officials and police who were meant to keep the peace. As we know, the TNI arranged for a further orgy of violence, death and destruction after the vote and Indonesian soldiers and militias killed up to 2000 more civilians, forced about 200,000 refugees across the border into West Timor and destroyed 70% of the tiny nation’s infrastructure. Some say it was as high as 80%
This led to a series of emergency meetings involving a number of world leaders including US president Clinton and Australian PM Howard. It resulted in UN military intervention led by Major General Peter Cosgrove that led to the retreat of the TNI from TL.
During this time, Xanana had to make some very heavy decisions. While the TNI and militia rampage was occurring, FALINTIL leaders wanted to allow their personnel to leave their bases and confront the TNI to protect the people. If this happened Xanana reasoned that it might stop a peacekeeping force from going to TL, so he ordered the resistance force to stay in their bases. FALINTIL did carry out this directive, but only after a very stormy phone call between Xanana and Taur Matan Ruak, the supreme commander of FALINTIL.
In early September 1999, Xanana was released from prison and was hosted at the British Embassy in Jakarta. The author describes his very exciting visits in October to Australia, Portugal and TL itself where he was re-united with many of the leaders, like Ramos Horta, whom he had not seen for 24 years.
On one very busy day in Melbourne, I attended 5 events in Melbourne where Xanana was the honoured guest and I was able to receive three of his famous hugs. I later met Xanana and Jose at the reception for the opening of the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor in 2000 and received another one!
(I had also attended the 1996 APCET in 1996 in Kuala Lumpur. All of the delegates were arrested, detained and deported probably because of pressure being put on Malaysian PM, Dr Mahathir, by the Indonesian dictatorship.
The final part of the book looks at Xanana’s coping with the responsibility of leading one of the poorest nations in the world whose people were traumatised and whose infrastructure had been destroyed. After being President of the CNRT, he was elected the first president of an independent TL in 2001 and during the second elections of 2007, he was elected Prime Minister. Niner highlights some of the problems that he faced during the 10 years since the TNI departed from TL.
eg
the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR); the differences that he had with former PM, Mari Alkitiri, and his government and the moves he made to replace him with Jose Ramos Horta; the events of 2006 that saw strife between some sections of the PNTL and the FDTL following the sacking of many FDTL personnel; the actions of former defence minister, Rogerio Lobato,
in arming two groups of civilians; the actions of Alfredo Reinado’s breakaway band and their wounding of Jose Ramos Horta and the attempted shooting of Xanana in 2008 before being killed by FDTL personnel and the anger of many Timorese that Xanana seems too readily to forgive those who committed the atrocious crimes in TL – both Indonesian war criminals and East Timorese militias and collaborators; .
I must admit that I recoiled in horror when I saw Xanana hug Subianto Prabowo, the former head of KOPASSUS, during a reconciliation meeting in Indonesia. This man was involved in the murder of Nicolau
Lobato, the Kraras and the Santa Cruz Massacres, the setting up of the militias and the befriending of the criminal militia leader, Eurico Guterres. Despite this, he was allowed to be a candidate in the last Indonesian presidential elections!
There are sure to be some who will say that the author is too soft on Xanana. She includes a quote from Constancio Pinto, the RENETIL leaderwho worked with him closely prior to the Santa Cruz Massacre. He said this of Xanana:
“Xanana is a great human being. He loves people. He’s really determined to fight for East Timor’s cause without any personal ambitions whatsoever. He is not vengeful…..
Sometimes he can be very funny; he always plays jokes on people. He would often tell jokes during lunch or dinner and he always kept everyone laughing.
He had lots of interesting stories about the guerillas and his childhood. One thing that I noticed about Xanana is that he loves children very much.He would always give special nicknames to babies who were born when he was in Dili. The names were always revolutionary ones such as Maubere…..
Xanana is a very brave person . He never gave any sign of being afraid”.
His sense of humour probably helped him to survive as he moved around the country as the leader of FALINTIL. Niner describes how a Chinese man used to carry Xanana in a box on the back of his truck. from place to place. On one occasion, Indonesian soldiers flagged down the Chinese man for a ride while Xanana was in the box!. Several of the soldiers sat on the box. Afterwards Xanana tried to tell him off for picking up the soldiers, but could not do so because he could not help laughing.
Xanana ’s winning ways worked well for him when he was in prison. He became a friend of many of the fellow prisoners and many of the prison guards. One of the prison staff at Cipinang Prison wore a Xanana T shirt!
The author throughout the book explains how Xanana modified his political beliefs when he thought it was necessary to advance East Timor’e struggle. She also describes how, as leader, he tried to understand both sides of debates about the way forward
Niner is not afraid to mention Xanana’s shortcomings. She mentions that he and the Timorese leadership are very patriarchal. The TL Parliament has more women MPs, but they have little say. She states that he told her of many stories of individual women he frequently had to rely on to shelter him from the TNI, but he gives no overall acknowledgement of their efforts in the independence struggle and has been remiss in recognising them as armed soldiers.
During the celebration of independence on 20 May 2002, there was a very moving salute to FALINTIL veterans. I was fortunate enough to be present. I estimated that about a third of the former FALANTIL
fighters were women. During my involvement in the solidarity movement, there were some descriptions of Timorese women who were FALANTIL soldiers, howver I had the impression that most acted as spies, guides, cooks etc
Overall, I think Sara Niner has written a terrific book on one of the most exciting and interesting political leaders of the late twentieth and twent first centuries.
She has given a balanced view of her subject and included some of the faults that she sees in him. Niner also helps the reader sort through the rather complicated history of TL during Xanana’s role as a key political leader, by including a chronology, a glossary, copious notes, many historical photographs, a number of maps and a comprehensive index.
In the closing pages of the book, the author looks at the many social problems that are being faced by the East Timorese and their road ahead and why Xanana, who was viewed as a great charasmatic resistance leader is now not so popular amongst many East Timorese because of his leadership style in dealing with those problems.
I like to think that there is a lot of international goodwill for the people of Timor Leste and that slowly this, along with the determination of the people, will help the newest nation to overcome the many problems it faces
GLOSSARY
A GUIDE TO SOME OF THE ABBREVIATIONS
ABRI: Indonesian armed forces
APCET: Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor
(there were a series of conferences held every 2 years between 1994 – 2000, which were organised by TL solidarity activists in the Philippines)
CAVR: Commission for Truth, Reception and Reconciliation
(the body established to look into the crimes that had been committed by all parties in TL and to establish a process of reconciliation)
CIET SA: Campaign for an Independent East Timor SA, the key solidarity group for East Timor from 1975 – 2002
(In 2002, this group became the Australian East Timor Friendship Association SA Inc)
CNRM: National Council for Maubere Resistance (1988 – 98)
CRRN: National Council for Revolutionary Resistance (1981 – 87)
CNRT: National Council of Timorese Resistance (1998 – 2001)
FALINTIL: Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor (the East Timorese resistance)
FDTL: Defence Force of Timor Leste
FRETILIN: Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of East Timor
(Formerly, this was the ASDT, Association of Democratic Timorese. It served as both a political party and a front for those desiring independence from both Portugal and Indonesia.
It became the party supported by most of the East Timorese before the invasion because of its many social initiatives eg establishment of agricultural collectives, health centres,
literacy programs etc. In the early days of the Indonesian occupation, it was synonomous with the resistance and it established FALANTIL. It is still a major political in independent
East Timor)
Hansip: Indonesian civilian guard which the TNI forced East Timorese to join
KOPASSUS: Indonesian Special Forces Command
Sometimes known as the Red Berets. Most observers of the history of the occupation of TL believe that this part of the TNI was the most brutal and committed the most heinous crimes
against human rights.
Maubere: This is a word from the Maibai region of Timor meaning “brother”
(During the Portuguese colonial period it came to mean poor and ignorant native. Niner reports Horta as saying it was the most successful political symbol of the campaign)
PNTL: National Police of Timor Leste
RDTL: Democratic Republic of East Timor
TL: an abbreviation for Timor Leste or East Timor
TNI Indonesian National Army
UDT: Union of Democratic Timorese
(The second largest political party in TL before the invasion. It sought independence, but only after a long period of autonomy with Portugal. It was supported mainly by the conservative chieftains or liurais and the more priveleged Timorese. For a short time in 1974 – 5, it was in a coalition with FRETILIN. After it broke away, it initiated a civil war, which was used as a pretext by the Indonesian dictatorship to invade. After reconciliation with the resistance, it became part of the CNRT}. It had 3 seats in TL’s first parliament. It now has no parliamentary representation)
