The Living Memory Project

A few years ago, prison doors in Indonesia and East Timor swung open to release hundreds of East Timorese nationalists imprisoned for supporting their country's 24-year struggle for independence. The most famous was José Alexandre 'Xanana' Gusmão, today president of the Democratic Republic of East Timor who returned to his country to the acclaim of wildly-cheering crowds.

In the following period ex-prisoners organised themselves into the Associação dos ex-Prisoneiros Politícos do Timor-Leste (Association of former Political Prisoners of East Timor, ASEPPOL), which estimated that around 10,000 people living in East Timor today suffered imprisonment. Many of these had been tortured. Countless others died in prison or disappeared without a trace. For each person imprisoned, a wider circle of family and friends was affected — by the anguish of separation from the victim, by knowledge of his or her suffering, by the loss of a breadwinner, and by stigmatisation and political persecution arising from the relationship. Children were especially marked by the imprisonment of family members.

Working with ASEPPOL, the Living Memory project aims to create a video archive based on interviews with these ex-prisoners. Inspired in part by Stephen Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation, the project will collect, preserve and catalogue testimony from political prisoners, to be held for future generations as part of East Timor's national heritage. The archive will also be accessible in various formats as an educational and media resource nationally and internationally.

Interviews will be formulated to elicit information on the impact of imprisonment on ex-prisoners' health, providing an invaluable database to plan strategies for treatment, especially in the case of torture victims.

The Living Memory Project at East Timor is managed by Jill Jolliffe and provides videos and images of ex-prisoners in East Timor.

Interview with Genoveva da Costa Martins
Genoveva da Costa Martins was a founder of the Popular Organisation of East Timorese Women, and is the widow of nationalist poet Francisco Borja da Costa, executed by the Indonesian army during the paratrooper landings in Dili in December 1975., She became politically active in the Ermera district, where she was born and later worked as a schoolteacher. As an early activist for the Fretilin party, she became interested in women's rights and worked alongside prominent colleagues of Borja, such as Vicente Sa'he, Mau Huno and Xanana Gusmão., In speaking of her prison experiences, Genoveva describes Francisco Borja da Costa and his work, and this Living Memory film is a tribute to him as well as to the suffering of this courageous widow., After his death Genoveva fled to the mountains to work with the resistance leadership, organising the women's movement and supporting its general activities. She describes teaching women fighters to read: in the absence of materials, they wrote in the dirt, or on banana leaves. Genoveva was captured and imprisoned for eight months in Ermera from October 1979, during which time she suffered torture. In 1992 she was imprisoned once again, for her association with captured guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmão., In 2001 Genoveva was elected to parliament for Fretilin in the country's first democratic elections, a post held until 2007. She appeals to East Timor's younger generation to study and learn from her generation's painful experience, and for women to take their rightful place in East Timor's new society., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Francisco Borja da Costa Park, Farol, Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe, Cinematographer: Nicola Daley, Date of Birth: 1956-01-03; Prisons: Ermera, East Timor (Timor-Leste); Other Prisoners: Indonesian army; Perpetrators: Ermera.
Interview with Joao Da Costa
Timorese nationalist and Baucau resident Joao da Costa was imprisoned by the Indonesian army in early 1976, soon after troops landed in his home town. A former soldier in Portugal’s colonial army he quickly joined resistance forces, but was denounced to Indonesian troops. From June 1976 he was held at the Flamboyan Hotel, a torture centre established by special force commandos from Ume unit. The Flamboyan is a luxury hotel today (the Baucau Pousada), which gives no clues to its past history. In this interview Da Costa describes the torture to which he and other prisoners were subject—electric shocks, the ‘chair’ torture, for example--and his subsequent transfer to Dili’s Comarca prison, where he was held for another three years. He and his baby grandson sing a song he learnt in prison which, from its content, must have been handed down to Timorese prisoners from ex-prisoners of Portugal’s Salazar regime., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Baucau, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe Cinematographer:Nicola Daley Interview transcription: Filomeno Ferreira Archivist: Maria Benfica, Date of Birth: 1953-01-31; Prisons: Baucau, East Timor ( Timor-Leste); Other Prisoners: Commandos das boinas vermelhas, exercito Indonesio/ red beret commandos, Indonesian army. Grupo Ume/ Group Ume; Perpetrators: Hotel Flamboyan Baucau (Pousada Baucau), Kota Baru (Vila Nova) Baucau, Companhia Ume Baucau, prisão CCC Dili (Cadeia Comarca Central), Sang Tai Ho, Dili.
Interview with Armandina Gusão
Armandina Gusmão, sister of Timor’s revolutionary hero Xanana Gusmão, tells the story of her imprisonment in the wake of his capture in November 1992. She and her husband Gilman were among scores of people who had hidden and protected the fugitive guerrilla leader who were then rounded up and interrogated at the notorious SGI building in the suburb of Colmera, in the East Timorese capital Dili. Forced to wear hoods during their transfer through Dili streets, Armandina and her husband were later separated at the SGI buildings and attacked by hooded secret police agents. In this interview Armandina reserves her right to silence over details. Armandina is a writer and an articulate defender of women’s rights, and Living Memory took the opportunity this interview offered to register also her graphic account of the first horrifying days of Indonesia’s December 1975 landing in Dili., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Dili, East Timor, (former office of Living Memory, and former SGI prison building, Colmera/ex- escritorio de Memoria Viva e ex-SGI prison building, Colmera), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe Cinematographer: Nicola Daley Interview transcription: Filomeno Ferreira Archivist: Maria da Silva Benfica, Other Names: Armandina Maria Gusmão; Date of Birth: 1956-03-22; Prisons: Ossú, Viqueque, East Timor (Timor-Leste); Other Prisoners: Ganap, Coronel Simbolon; Perpetrators: Kodim, SGI, Colmera.
Interview with Akui Leong
Akui Leong, also known as Francisco Lui, was born in Hatu Udo and raised in the Chinese community of Same in East Timor’s southern mountain region, which in Portuguese times was a relatively flourishing community, having its own school. As a young man he identified with the East Timorese nationalist cause and later decided to work for the resistance movement against the Indonesian occupation of 1975-1999., In the early 1990s he became the driver of resistance commander Xanana Gusmao, transporting him on perilous journeys from mountain camps to Dili, where he sometimes travelled to consult other resistance figures. In the interview with Living Memory he describes one such journey from the Kablaki mountains to the capital., He describes also his subsequent capture at his house in Dili by Indonesian soldiers in November 1992. He was taken to the SGI Colmera interrogation centre, where he suffered severe torture over several weeks from interrogators seeking to discover the whereabouts of Xanana Gusmao. He was later joined there in his suffering by fellow-resistants Mau Hudo (later to serve briefly as guerrilla commander), Henrique Belmiro and Vasco da Gama., Akui Leong tells how he withstood the torture, never revealing Gusmao’s whereabouts. He still suffers the after-effects, particularly in his feet, permanently damaged by the ‘chair torture’., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe, Cinematographer: Dean Adams, Other Names: Francisco Lui; Date of Birth: 1964-10-06; Prisons: Hato Udo, East Timor (Timor-Leste); Other Prisoners: Indoinesian commandos, SGI base Colmera.; Perpetrators: GI Colmera, Dili, Farol, Balide prison.
Interview with Chico Mau Lohi
Chico Mau Lohi , revolutionary songwriter, describes 1975 invasion; witnesses executions 9 Dec 1975; imprisoned and tortured in Tropical Hotel 28 Dec. 1975; sings to Col. Sinaga for his life; Feb. 1976 transferred to Balide Prison; wife dies at home 28 July 1976, attends funeral and returns to prison 2 more years; describes disappearance Orient Five band members; freed 1978, remarries., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Houses of Chico Mau Lohi and Francisco Xavier do Amaral, and Hotel Plaza, Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe, Cinematographer: Dean Adams, Other Names: Francisco De Jesus Brito; Date of Birth: 1948-12-25; Prisons: Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste); Other Prisoners: Kodim; Sinaga; Angkatan Laut; INTEL; Perpetrators: Hotel Tropical, Dili, East Timor(Timor-Leste); Comarca Balide, Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste).
Interview with António dos Santos Matos
Anito Matos is a well-known Timorese pop singer with a social conscience. He was arrested in 1991 during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, in the wake of the 12th November massacre of unarmed student protesters in Dili's Santa Cruz ceremony, during which around 200 young people died., At that time he was studying at a private university in Denpasar, Bali, where he belonged to RENETIL, an underground organisation of student nationalists led by Fernando La Sama (appointed East Timor's parliamentaty Speaker in 2007). Most of its members in Indonesia, including Anito Matos, were captured in thepolice round-up which followed. They were subject to extreme psychological pressure during interrogations, including deprivation of food and sleep. Anito and others were freed after two months because La Sama took legal reponsibility for his colleagues' actions, serving a term of 8 years in Cipinang prison, Jakarta alongside guerrilla commander Xanana Gusmao., After Indonesia's 1999 withdrawal from East Timor, Anito Matos's nationalist songs had a surge of popularity. He continues to sing, and became a senior official in the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2007., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A05006., Place of Interview: Dili, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Credits: Interviewer: Jill Jolliffe, Interview Transcription: Filomeno Ferreira, Archivist: Maria da Silva Benfica, Date of Birth: 1962-05-08; Prisons: Dili; Other Prisoners: Col. Suntoro, Forças Inteligentes Indonesios; Perpetrators: Quartel General das Polícias, Polda Nusra, Denpasar Bali, Jacarta Polda Metro Jaya.