East Timor – It is a quiet afternoon in Lospalos.
Just the clucking of chickens, the grunt of a pig and in the distance, a transistor radio playing Portuguese reggaeton; a typical small-town soundtrack in this country of 1.4 million people situated in the Timor Sea between Indonesia and Australia’s northern territories.
In the living room of her home, Berta dos Santos recalled the day in December 1975 when the Indonesian army brutally breached Lospalos’s tranquillity.
“They came down by parachute and started shooting,” dos Santos told media, recounting the attack on the rural town located some 210km (130 miles) east of the capital, Dili.
Dos Santos was only a child, but along with others, she ran to hide in the nearby mountains. The invading Indonesian forces were determined to find them – especially the women and girls.
“The army searched for us in the bush, captured us and took us back,” she said, recounting how at just nine years old she was violently raped by Indonesian soldiers.
Her mother, Helena, was dragged away and forced into sexual slavery.
The crimes committed against dos Santos, her mother and many others in Lospalos marked just the beginning of Indonesia’s savage 24-year-long occupation of East Timor.
What followed was violent military rule typified by massacres and the forced starvation of civilians, sexual violence and the torture, imprisonment and execution of those who resisted Indonesia’s occupation.
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