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On 12th November 1991 the funeral took place of Sebastiao Gomes, another young person killed by the Indonesian army. In the now famous Santa Cruz cemetery, words of prayer were quickly silenced by gunfire from the Indonesian military. About 250 Timorese were killed. Yet, this massacre had something that differed radically from the others that had occurred during 24 years of occupation. Max Stahl, an English journalist, filmed it. The images were sent to all the network televisions in the world. This TV exposure was fundamental to giving world attention to the Timorese fight.An eyewitness report from the events of the day:
'As the pace of the demonstration quickened, keeping up with the leading group became increasingly difficult. The march was to pass Santa Cruz cemetery, prayers would be said for Sebastiao Gomes who had been killed by soldiers while hiding in the grounds of a church. Cemeteries and churches had become places of refuge for the young victims of nightly purges. The scene at the cemetery was building into a chaotic mass of people as thousands of demonstrators crowded at the gates and boys with banners scaled the high walls surrounding the graveyard shouting 'viva e liberdade!'
Children as young as eight joined in the procession as it passed schools. Bemused Indonesians stared blankly from government buildings, and soldiers scuttled about in the background as other Timorese cheered. The demonstrators became bolder as they passed military posts waving flags depicting their leader, Xanana Gusmao.
As they poured through the gates and headed towards a small chapel, the cry for freedom changed to the sound of prayer. Girls carrying trays of flower petals led a file of people towards the boy's grave. The momentary religious calm became an unnatural hush accompanied by an uneasy shuffling of feet.
Moments later, agitation turned to panic as a tide of terrified people scattered in response to a hail of bullets. The Indonesian military had arrived. Taking up positions around the walls of the cemetery, without warning they began to fire indiscriminately into the crowd.
People took cover, older children shielding the young to protect them as the shooting went on relentlessly. Boys dragged the wounded and dying into the chapel, terror gripped everyone. The Lord's Prayer was repeated with an intensity so charged that it reached fever pitch at the approach of the soldiers as they invaded the cemetery grounds.
The killers passed between graves bludgeoning people to death with their rifle butts, hysteria overcame many of the young girls sheltering in the chapel as they saw the soldiers approaching, while others waited silently for the inevitable end. I will never forget the pitiful sight as I was dragged away, of children cowering in the shadows of the soldiers. It was difficult to comprehend the blood splattered scene as bodies lay in heaps in the dust where only forty minutes earlier several thousand young people had celebrated a taste of freedom.'
Xanana
Horta
Belo