The massacre at Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor on 12 November 1991 killed at least 250 people. Then-occupying forces of the Indonesian army opened fire on non-violent protesters, marching through the streets of the capital Dili. In Indonesia, the massacre remains a muted subject among others in relation to other atrocities during the Suharto dictatorship.

By Klas Lundström

EAST TIMOR | The massacre at Santa Cruz Cemetery 30 years ago was not the first of its kind to occur in East Timor, occupied by Indonesia between 1975 and 1999. The Indonesian occupation apparatus, then governed by dictator Suharto, systematically crushed all forms of democracy initiatives and waged brutal warfare on the East Timorese liberation movement Fretilin.

The most notorious human rights violation known to the outside world was the summary execution of five Australian journalists by Indonesian militias in the border town of Balibo. An event that Australia’s then-government, allied with the United States and Indonesia, long did its best to muffle.

At the Santa Cruz cemetery on 12 November 1991, several foreign dignitaries were present this day, including reporters with the ability to easily cable moving images and testimonies of Indonesian troops’ abuses to awaiting editors.

One of the surviving foreign witnesses to the massacre at Santa Cruz on 12 November 1991 was photographer Max Stahl, whose unique images demonstrated the systematic abuses of the Indonesian army. Max Stahl himself passed away recently, at the end of October.

In East Timor, the 30th anniversary of the massacre has been celebrated in the form of memorial speeches, concerts, and exhibitions. In neighboring Indonesia, from which the Timorese gained independence after an UN-initiated referendum in 1999, the massacre remains a non-topic.