Interviews with Alberto Ricardo Da Silva

I studied to become a priest in Macau. I studied philosophy. However, I was not able to complete my studies, due to the problem of Mao Tse Tung and the difficulties of that time. We had to study outside, continue our studies overseas, and so I went to Portugal to study.

I studied there for five more years, and I completed my ecclesiastical studies in philosophy, theology, and other subjects, for the Priesthood. And I was ordained as a priest in 1972. I then returned to Timor and immediately began to work as a Priest.

Since those early times, according to my knowledge, my view, through my talks and questioning of the people – I had great interest in the people of Timor and the problems of Timor. Many of my fellow priests did the same thing, because they were Timorese.

My work as a pastor began in Ossu in the Eastern Part of the country. I then moved to work in Dili, in Dare. It was then that the problems of war started. The war started and on April, 25 Portugal gave the possibility to all of, what were then referred to as its “overseas provinces” to choose their own future. At that time, it was a big problem in Timor.

Political parties began to emerge in Timor, and there existed disorder and chaos. There were no mutual understanding among Timorese and there were violence. I stood with the people during those very difficult situations, until the Indonesians came in. When the Indonesians came in, I remained in my position. I am saying this, because at that time, hundreds and hundreds of the population of Dili ran to the mountains to find shelter, to find a place to protect themselves from the great violence that were taking place in Dili.

Mortars, mortar pieces were shot everywhere, and many people died. Many residents of Dili ran up to Dare and stayed with me there because they were not able to continue to the mountains. So I began to become aware of the various problems that the people faced, and of their insecurities. It is not the first time that the Timorese population faced problems, but by then the problems and insecurity had escalated enormously.

I saw that the people were looking for protection; I saw that that was why they sought to stay with me in Dare. I had the opportunity to get away; I could have gone to Australia, I could have gone to Indonesia or to Portugal as others did. I, too, had the opportunity to get out, but my conscience did not allow me to do so.

Because many people had run to Dare to stay with me, children, women and men, hundreds of them became refugees and went there. So my conscience did not allow me to get away, but instead, it dictated me to receive them, to assist them, and carry out my duty as a priest, giving spiritual support; evangelization, apostolate, religious instructions – I had to assist and respond to the needs of the people.

And I saw, the closer I get to the people, the more I became aware that they had a desire inside of them, which was essential. They wanted self-determination. They faced so much violence, confronted various suffering… because as a matter of fact, during those times, as part of the military strategy, an Indonesian military battalion even came to stay with me and the population in Dare so the situation was very complicated; you see, the population were afraid, but unable to run further away from Dare and so they stayed with me because they felt protected by me, but then an Indonesian battalion came and joined us, too, in Dare. So I had to maintain good relationships with both the Indonesian military and Timorese population who had sought refuge with me. That was difficult. However, that taught me many things.

And I had a deep conviction, I believed that these people who had gone through difficult and violent times during the civil wars, when the Timorese were divided among themselves, did not understand each other and were killing each other; I saw that these same people had become united, and were now looking for ways to achieve independence.

That was my feeling, because I spoke to people, and I saw their attitudes which spoke of this. So I took it upon myself, to look for ways to explain to the Indonesians with whom I maintained good relationships, that this people has a good desire in their hearts, they desired something good, they did not want something bad; they wanted to become a independent nation. I explained this with utmost care and caution. I had to do that because I felt it was important to make the Indonesians understand why the Timorese are fighting/resisting their presence.

Bishop Alberto Ricardo Da Silva (1943 – 2015) was the Roman Catholic bishop of Dili, the capital of East Timor. In 1991, he was a parish priest who gave sanctuary to student activists who were threatened by the Indonesian military because of their support for Timorese independence. In November of that same year, his church was surrounded by the military-organized mobs, and one of the student activists inside the church, Sebastião Gomes, was taken out and shot to death.

On November 12, 1991, Father Da Silva said a funeral mass for Gomes. The funeral procession from the church to Santa Cruz Cemetery turned into a peaceful protest demonstration, with several thousand men, women, and children waving banners and chanting pro-independence slogans. After the procession had entered the cemetery, the military opened fire, killing an estimated 250 mourners, including children in their Catholic school uniforms. A videotape of the attack was smuggled out of the country, and the Santa Cruz massacre focused the world’s attention on East Timor, substantially increasing pressure on the Indonesian government to respect the Timorese people’s right to self-determination.

In the weeks after the massacre, Father Da Silva was subjected to repeated harsh interrogations by the military authorities. He was accused of being the “mastermind” of the demonstrations, although he insisted that he was interested only in his religious ministry, not in politics, and that this ministry had included Timorese of all political persuasions as well as Catholic members of the Indonesian military. Nevertheless, he was repeatedly threatened with imprisonment or worse. In order to get him out of harm’s way, his church superiors assigned him to study in Rome. He returned to Timor after several years and Pope John Paul II named him as Bishop of Dili in 2004. As bishop, Da Silva pressed for justice for the victims of violence during East Timor’s occupation and struggle for independence. He also encouraged the Timorese people to take part in their country’s democratic development.

He resigned as bishop shortly before his death in April 2015.

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, is a country of 1.1 million people in the East Indies. It was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century and was an exporter of sandalwood and coffee. As the Portuguese economy struggled in the first part of the 20th century, the nation attempted to extract more resources from its colonies, including East Timor. This increase in Portuguese business control and demands was met with resistance by inhabitants. After Portugal announced in 1975 that the colony would soon become independent and began the process of decolonization, fighting broke out between rival Timorese factions. The Indonesian Army invaded and occupied East Timor in December of that year, and a few months later the country was formally annexed by Indonesia.

The Indonesian occupation was marked by repression and brutality. Under the dictatorship of Suharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1967 to 1998, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were denied throughout Indonesia, including in occupied East Timor. Timorese who were suspected of harboring separatist sympathies—particularly those suspected of association with the small but resilient guerrilla resistance movement—were routinely arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Extrajudicial killings were common. The 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, in which Indonesian troops killed an estimated 200 men, women, and children who had participated in a funeral procession for a pro-independence activist, focused world attention on the continuing denial of democracy and self-determination in East Timor. The massacre and associated events also highlighted the importance of the Catholic Church, both as a focus of Timorese identity and as the only institution that could sometimes afford a measure of protection from government-sponsored violence.

In 1998, shortly after the fall of the Indonesian dictator Suharto, the new President B.J. Habibie announced a “consultation” by which the people of East Timor would be permitted to choose either autonomy within Indonesia or outright independence. The consultation took place in the form of a U.N.-supervised referendum in August 1999 in which 79 percent of the voters chose independence. In the weeks after the announcement of the vote, the departing Indonesian army and its associated Timorese militias destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure and killed over a thousand people. That December, a United Nations peacekeeping force was established, and a U.N. mission administered the country until the restoration of independence in 2002. East Timor and Indonesia are now both multiparty parliamentary democracies.

Violence has continued since East Timor gained independence. Violent clashes in 2006 between rioters and police forces led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Police and rioters clashed once again leading up to the 2007 elections. The election required three separate ballots due to irregularities and accusations of fraud. Additionally, assassination attempts on both candidates and elected leaders occurred. In 2012, East Timor held both presidential and primary elections considered successful, free, and fair. At the end of that year, the UN ended its peacekeeping mission in the nation.
East Timor’s economy remains heavily dependent on commodities such as oil, coffee, and sandalwood.

Freedom House’s 2015 Freedom in the World Report lists East Timor as “partly free.” The country earned a freedom rating of 3 with 7 being the least free. East Timor also received civil liberties rating and political rights ratings of 3. The country still struggles with corruption and nepotism as well as a weak rule of law. Additionally, there is a lack of transparency surrounding the government and law regulates demonstrations that “question constitutional order” or could damage the reputation of the nation’s leaders. Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press 2014 report assigned a “Partly Free” rating to East Timor.