Untold Story of an East Timor ‘War Prize’
A teenage girl who was the victim of kidnapping and sexual violence in a series of incidents following the 1999 East Timorese referendum, has finally been reunited with her parents after 23 years of separation. But her return opened the veil about the massacre that killed at least 130 people, including three clergy.
"At that time we were cooking in the kitchen behind the priest's room, hearing gunshots, we immediately ran into the priest's room," said Bonita—not her real name—recounting how the events that occurred on September 6, 1999 unfolded.
"After that [they] immediately attacked. Militias with soldiers and police entered the priest's room, immediately started shooting," she said later.
“I immediately went out the door. All of sudden, the militia commander took me by the hand. 'I'm married to you', he told me.He immediately took me to his car, put me in his car," Bonita said.
She was kidnapped and forced into marriage by the militia who took her in, while her younger sister, along with three priests and dozens of Suai residents in Timor Leste—which was then still part of Indonesia—died their lives in an incident known as the "Suai Church Massacre".