historyWikipedia1991 · Dili, East Timor
A funeral march in Dili ended in a massacre that put East Timor on the world's agenda
On 12 November 1991 Indonesian forces opened fire on a crowd of East Timorese demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, killing at least 250 people. The gathering began as a procession for a young pro-independence activist who had been killed earlier that month, and turned into a protest against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, which began in 1975. Foreign journalists and filmmakers recorded parts of the event. The footage was smuggled out of the territory and broadcast abroad, where it shocked viewers and brought East Timor's situation to wide international attention.
International pressure on Indonesia grew after the massacre. In 1999 East Timor voted overwhelmingly in a UN-run referendum for independence, and in 2002 it became the independent country of Timor-Leste. The massacre is part of a wider period of violence that human rights groups describe as the East Timor genocide.
Smuggled film and eyewitness reporting have repeatedly turned local repression into international news, as the footage from this event did.
Timor-Leste was the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, gaining independence on 20 May 2002.
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Image: Wikimedia Commons
