Caulfield Port Phillip Leader (Australia)

September 12, 2005 Monday

City, friends lament massacre victims and pave way for future

PORT Phillip's Friends of Suai last week commemorated the sixth anniversary of a massacre in the East Timorese town.

Three priests and 200 men, women and children were killed in a massacre at the Suai church school after the country's pro-independence vote in 1999.

Port Phillip Council and a community group have entered into a 10-year partnership to rebuild the coastal town near the West Timor border.

Balthasar Kehi, a former Catholic priest from East Timor now living in Melbourne, sang a lament at last week's ceremony.

"The purpose of keeping the memory of the brutality alive is not just to show our solidarity with the victims, but more importantly to condemn those acts of cruelty and to prevent their repetition anywhere in the world," he said.

The partnership's efforts will fund things such as community and youth centres, a nutrition program, training for unemployed youth, and computer and English-language classes

Details: www.friendsofsuai.org.au