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One man rushed at Dewanto and cut him with a machete. The sister claims that the slaughter then began. Blood flowed out under the doors of the church like a river. Was this what she saw then or what she could not stop seeing in her nightmares? Or both? Over 100 died in Suai that day.
With East Timor marking ten years of independence on Sunday, it is relevant to ask which nation in particular it is celebrating independence from. In one sense East Timorese value independence because it is a reminder that they do not hold ties and obligations to Australia, which might have become their neo-colonial master.
Critics of Australia's bid to join the UN Security Council have either a narrow view of what constitutes Australia's national interest, or a view of Australian taxpayers as shareholders who should expect a financial return on every investment.
Kevin Rudd's failure to embrace the Timor legend with more imagination and substance was a missed opportunity to connect with Labor's Second World War legacy. Wartime Prime Minister John Curtin saw the guerilla war in Timor as a unique and significant part of turning back the Japanese tide.
Isabel Guterres came to Australia as a refugee from East Timor in the early '80s. Recently the Australian Catholic University awarder her its highest honour in recognition of her lifetime commitment to justice and service. Her story is a lesson in the value of treating refugees with humanity.
While it is inherently racist for a person to claim membership of the best race, it is no bad thing for a religious person to claim membership of the one true religion. That is what religious people do.
Professor Martha Nussbaum's recent book Liberty of Conscience provides a rich textured treatment of the place of religion in the public square. If God is taken out of the picture, it may be difficult to maintain a human rights commitment to the weakest and most despised in society.
Eighteen months on from the 2006 unrest, Australian and New Zealand troops are still patrolling the streets of Dili. There has been no imperative for them to exchange berets and operate under UN auspices as occurred with the original INTERFET engagement.
As the Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri, prepared a strategy that successfully blocked Friday's leadership vote, hanging on the wall of a conference room in his office is a satellite photo of Dili on fire...
Seven years after the optimism born of independence, East Timor burns. Rival gangs fight in the streets, Australian soldiers try to keep the peace, and the people of Dili wait to see whether calm can be restored.