Copy of Eng Tais Final.Qxd

10 - 23 July 2000 Published bi-weekly in Tetun, English, Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia and distributed free of charge Vol. I, No. 11 TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE Diaspora bring their skills home ast or west, the saying goes, home is Ebest. But for the East Timorese in the diaspora, this cliché has a deeper signifi- cance now. “It’s a great feeling to be back and help- ing my country during the transition phase,” 28-year-old Luisa Aniceto says, cap- turing the feelings of many East Timorese who have recently returned to their country of birth after spending most of a lifetime in exile. “I can’t explain how important it is for me to be here.” As fate would have it, Ms. Aniceto left her motherland at the age of three, as part of the mass exodus of East Timorese after Indonesia’s annexation in 1975. She came back in December 1999, and immediately secured a job with the UNTAET administration. The Dili-born woman is now part of a patriotic core group of professional Timorese who previously lived abroad but Photo by OCPI-UNTAET are now committed to rebuilding their coun- The first class of 50 East Timorese police cadets taking their oath of service during grad- try. “We are merely acting as a bridge, the uation ceremonies at the Timor Lorosa'e Police Training College campus in Comoro, Dili. link between the local people and foreigners See page 4 for story and more photos. continued page 2 Coping with psychological trauma: a family affair ntonio had difficulties sleeping. Each the trauma many East Timorese have expe- These symptoms can be apathy (such as Anight his militia past came back to rienced and its lingering effects. “Many peo- staring at a wall for days) or anorexia haunt him. His nightmares, with people ple here are suffering from trauma in one (unwillingness to eat). Or one might become screaming, enveloped in blood and fire, way or another. The prolonged oppression, delusional (hearing voices) or paranoid incessantly kept him awake, exhausted him with all its hardship, sorrow and difficulties, (thinking that someone is following them, to the point that he could not eat. Some even torture and massacres, has left many maybe even out to kill them), or schizo- days, he would just sit, listless, staring at scars which will take time to heal. And some- phrenic (thinking that they are God or some the walls for hours. times not only time, but specific assistance,” continued page 3 Antonio was one of the many East said Dr. Silove from Pradet (Psychosocial Timorese men who were forced to join the Recovery and Development in East Timor), militia last year. Although he managed to during a four-day National Mental Health stay out of the killing and eventually and Psychosocial Recovery Consultation at escaped to the mountains to join his friends, the SPK Nursing School in Lahane, Dili, the painfulness of what he had witnessed from 20-23 June. and the notion that somehow he was com- As Dr. Silove explained, there are differ- plicit in it kept haunting him. ent kinds of “traumatizing experiences”. João had become addicted to alcohol, There is the life-threatening situation, or loss each night drinking himself into a stupor. of home and possessions or even worse, loss Even though he’d tried, he couldn’t give it of a loved one. Other traumatizing experi- up. Alcohol helped him forget what had hap- ences include being forced to endure injus- pened to his family. His parents had been tice, or having one’s role or identity disrupt- killed by the militia as an act of revenge ed; or losing faith in life and in its very mean- after João had escaped from the place where ing. he was kept, interrogated and tortured “In most cases, people are just upset and because of his activist involvement. His sis- stressed,” said Dr. Silove, “which translates ter was taken from their parents’ house one into difficulty sleeping and maybe also eat- night and when they brought her back, she ing. Some might seek refuge in alcohol or had been raped by several men from TNI. drugs, as they are feeling angry and frustrat- Not only did she lose her virginity that ed. But most of these feelings will disappear, night, she also lost her chance of a future given enough time and the right environ- married life with kids of her own. Which ment. In some cases though, a person can Photo by OCPI-UNTAET man would still want to marry her? become so preoccupied by severe grief that it A woman cradles her recently born grandson, whose These two men are just an example of really makes him or her sick and disabled mother became mentally ill about four years ago while with specific clinical manifestations.” still living with her husband and four other children. Tais Timor is a public information service of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) 10 - 23 July 2000 Tais Timor episodes of the country’s as a musician trained in the latest studio traumatic past, East recording technology in Australia with his Timorese people in the counterparts in East Timor. “It is important for diaspora are now at a cross- people to express themselves through dance roads. It is their moment of and music,” the ex-Perth resident says. “This is reckoning as they engage in what I hope to promote in the new East Timor.” profound soul-searching as Not everybody is happy, though. “Those of to the role they can play in us who are coming to set up shop here are the new nation. viewed as cowards or opportunists,” laments a Already, a few have Timorese of Chinese ancestry. “The locals say packed their bags destined we will flee again if there’s trouble. But we also for Dili. These returnees suffered, our relatives’ property was destroyed, are a mixed tableau of pro- and we now have to help them,” he adds. fessionals including schol- In retrospect, however, those who ars, businessmen, engi- remained (and they are in the overwhelming Photo by OCPI-UNTAET Fernando Pires (left) talking to a visitor in his office at the Save the Children neers, lawyers and doctors. majority) to advance the struggle on the home Federation in Dili. Fernando lived in Australia for 24 years before coming to Experts say that this is the front say they have no ill feelings towards those East TImor last December to help rebuild his country. kind of expertise and sacri- who fled but are now eager to come back. “It Diaspora bring ... continued from page 1 fice the young nation needs depends on the person and his attitude,” says at this critical moment in its history. But many who are here to assist,” says Fernando Pires, Carlos Pinto, a Dili resident. “If they have a have yet to return. Why? an employee of the Save the Children positive attitude then they are acceptable. But The answer is complex, though interviews Federation, an international non-governmen- if they look down upon us, then that’s a prob- with a cross-section of people provide a clue. tal organization (NGO) in Dili. He is now lem. We are all Timorese and are ready to live “Educated Timorese in the diaspora have a happy, he says, to make a contribution to his with one another.” moral obligation to come back home and help,” changing motherland, a country that he was However, standing in the way to homecom- says Nidia Oliveira, who holds a Ph.D. in forced to leave at the age of eight, resettling in ing for many people are formidable stumbling arbovirology (mosquito-borne viruses) and who Dili again last December. blocks, including personal commitments in recently came back to East Timor and secured a “I tell our people that we are faced with a their country of residence. “Many older people job at OXFAM, an international NGO. different set-up,” explains Mr. Pires. “With the have financial obligations like mortgages and Ms. Oliveira quit her job as a graduate end of the independence struggle, now is the school tuition to pay and it is not easy to just research assistant at the University of Western time to take real responsibility.” board a plane and fly back,” says Esmeralda Da Australia to make a fresh start in her home Mr. Pires spent the better part of his youth Cruz, an UNTAET employee who trained in country. She had left East Timor as a four-year- in Melbourne, Australia, where he was exiled anthropology in Australia where she lived for old in 1975. Speaking in a voice tinged with nos- for 24 years. Typical of other Timorese in the 24 years before coming to East Timor in talgia, the career academic says, “It does not diaspora, the young man tried to maintain a December 1999. “It’s easy for a single person matter how long people have been away as long symbolic attachment to his roots, affiliating like me to make a decision to return, but for as the willingness to come back is there.” himself with cultural groups and other organi- married ones, it’s very different,” says Ms. Da In Perth, where Ms. Oliveira lived for 24 zations devoted to the East Timor cause. Cruz. years, “many people are willing to return,” she The theatres in Melbourne, Lisbon and For some of the educated elite, or “divided says, and they are keenly following political Darwin, Australia, were the main platform for Timorese” as they are sometimes described, developments in East Timor.

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