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.