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The Santa Cruz Massacre
November 12, 1991
"When
film footage of the massacre at Santa Cruz*. was broadcast to
audiences around the world it provoked a significant international
outcry against the practices of the Indonesian military in
Timor-Leste.... However,
... even in the face of strong international demands to bring
those who had killed unarmed demonstrators to account, the
institutional practices of ABRI/TNI provided the majority of
perpetrators who were most responsible with effective impunity."
-- Chega!
Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and
Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) |
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On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops fired upon a peaceful memorial
procession to a cemetery in Dili, East Timor that had turned into a
pro-independence demonstration. More than 271 East Timorese were killed that day
at the Santa Cruz cemetery or in hospitals soon after. An
equal number were disappeared and are believed dead. This massacre, unlike
many others which occurred during the course of Indonesia's U.S.-backed
occupation, was filmed and photographed by international journalists. Amy
Goodman and Allan Nairn, two U.S. reporters, were beaten during the
massacre.
The Santa Cruz Massacre sparked the international solidarity movement
for East Timor, including the founding of the East Timor Action Network,
and was the catalyst for congressional action to stem the flow of U.S.
weapons and other military assistance for Indonesia’s brutal security
forces. Ali Alatas, former foreign minister of Indonesia, called the
massacre a "turning point," which set in motion the events
leading to East Timor's coming independence.
The people of East Timor now have their freedom and a soon-to-be
independent nation, but they have yet to see justice for decades abuses
inflicted on their people and country by the Indonesian military.
Casualties of the November 12, 1991 Massacre at Santa Cruz Cemetery in Dili,
East Timor
The attached lists were compiled by the Portuguese solidarity group "A Paz e
Possivel em Timor-Leste" (Peace is Possible in East Timor). It was published in
leading Portuguese newspapers in November, 1992. Jose Ramos-Horta described how the data
was obtained:
"... has been compiled by 12 teams of East Timorese students, school teachers,
priests, nuns, nurses, paramedics, hospital staff, workers a the morgues, totaling 72
researchers, working round the clock for three months, interviewing household members in
each "bairro," immediately after 12 November 1991.
The preliminary report reached Lisbon in February and was handed over to two specialist
groups in Portugal that have been investigating human rights abuses in East Timor for more
than 10 years. A copy was channeled to Amnesty International for independent verification.
It took six months for mass of the detailed information sent from East Timor to be
processed and analyzed. The researchers took extreme care in double-checking each piece of
information."
The Lists: 271 Killed;
278 Wounded;
103 Hospitalized;
270 "Disappeared"
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