Travel Tips

Supporters of justice and human rights all over the world lost a committed and valuable ally when Australian physician Andrew McNaughtan died unexpectedly at his Sydney home last December. For East Timor, the loss is especially painful, both because of the effective work Andrew did to advance the independence of East Timor, and for the equally effective work he would have done in the future to support human rights and economic independence for this new country.

Andrew was motivated by a sharp sense of justice, and followed his instincts with great skill and analysis. He spent a year in Nicaragua practicing medicine, and later continually helped Nigerians, Indonesians, Acehnese, Papuans, and even Americans struggling for justice. But his greatest commitment was to the East Timorese people. In the few weeks since he died, many of his friends and colleagues have shared memories. Each of us has learned much about Andrew, and all have been struck by the wide range of his work, and the many results it had. Indeed, it is hard to think of any non-Timorese person who contributed more to East Timor's independence than Andrew did.

Although Andrew was Australian, justifiably outraged by his government's support for Indonesia's occupation, he understood the importance of international campaigning and strategy.

Throughout the 1990s, he made repeated visits to East Timor, interviewing and filming people here and making his videos available to key journalists, campaigners and officials around world. Sometimes at great personal risk, he provided documentation which disproved Indonesia's lies. At a time when East Timorese were being arrested and worse for contacting global human rights groups, Andrew shrewdly used his "malai privilege" to do what they could not.

Andrew began adult life as a welder and a motorcycle racer, and after an accident he decided to go to medical school. But his real passion was to fight against injustice, and he found that he could work more effectively for East Timor as a campaigner than by providing health care. He began supporting East Timor in 1992, and became Information Officer for the East Timor International Support Center based in Darwin, and Convenor of the Australia-East Timor Association in Sydney.

Andrew's articulate, strategic and persistent advocacy of East Timor's case with Australian media and politicians was critical to laying the groundwork for Canberra's belated 1999 conversion to support East Timor. Often using graphic photographs of East Timorese victims, Andrew's videos and publications were used by many activists and journalists and distributed widely, forcing many to acknowledge the crimes being committed here, the afterimages remaining in their previously willfully blind eyes.

Andrew knew the strategic importance of global solidarity, and he was tremendously helpful to campaigners in the United States and elsewhere who had less access to information and audiovisuals than in Australia. Andrew also participated in the APCET (Asia-Pacific Coalition for East Timor) conferences, and his hand phone played a crucial role in maintaining media contact while the APCET II conference was arrested by Malaysian police in 1996.

Andrew compiled an exhibition of more than 100 photographs to help people understand East Timor's history, and six sets of photographs were shown all over the world. When they were exhibited at Canberra's Parliament House in 1997, the government changed the title from Your Friends Will Not Forget You to A History of East Timor in World War II, and photos showing events after 1975 were censored, and could only be shown at a local church.

In October 1998, Indonesia was claiming to withdraw troops from East Timor, but people here knew the opposite was happening. From a clandestine resistance member in ABRI's personnel office, Andrew obtained more than 100 pages of Indonesian military documents proving that actual troop deployments were much higher than Jakarta claimed, and increasing. Andrew quietly obtained expert analysis of these documents, and coordinated simultaneous release of the information in London, Washington, Jakarta and Canberra to expose Jakarta's lies at a critical time, putting the global media spotlight on the post-Suharto military occupation.

Andrew was always very generous with his personal funds, and gave tens of thousands of dollars to Falintil and Xanana's work. Before and during the 1999 referendum, Andrew was again in East Timor, providing money and other assistance to enable people targeted by the TNI/militia to escape to safety, and compiling information about the militias to inform the UN, journalists, officials and activists worldwide. A few days before the referendum, he and two Australian colleagues were arrested by Indonesian police in Zumalai after being attacked by militias. Although they were deported a few days later, Andrew learned of the vote results while in custody. He observed that his Brimob captors were genuinely surprised that 79% voted for independence despite the Indonesian terror campaign final evidence of how little Indonesia's occupiers understood the people of East Timor.

Andrew came back to East Timor in late September 1999, and returned several times. He helped InterFET understand the historical and political context, as well as current information, of the country they had just arrived to "save." He worked with Timor Aid, helped Timorese friends with personal problems, and educated himself and many others on new challenges facing East Timor especially pursuing justice for Indonesian perpetrators of crimes against humanity here, and preventing Australia from stealing the majority of East Timor's oil and gas resources. Among other projects, he worked with journalist HT Lee to produce the video Don't Rob Their Future: Give them a Fair Go which is on the OilWeb CD-ROM published by La'o Hamutuk.

During 2003, several foreigners who contributed to East Timor lost their lives prematurely, including Dr. Andrew McNaughtan, Father Stefani Renato (a long-term Italian/Japanese supporter of East Timor, since 2000 parish priest in Atsabe, killed in an October automobile accident), Sergio Vieira de Mello, and four Korean PKF soldiers swept away by a river in Oecussi. Each of these deaths are tragic, but we believe those who chose to commit their lives to East Timor's people and nationhood Andrew and Father Stefani deserve special recognition.

Since 1999, many have come here to advance their careers, make money, follow orders, or share in East Timor's independence, and their help is welcome. But between 1975 to 1999, there was no material benefit in supporting East Timor. People like Andrew McNaughtan, who gave up their careers and spent much personal money to participate in East Timor's struggle against injustice, are rare treasures who cannot be replaced. Although thousands of East Timorese people suffered more and took greater risks than any solidarity activist ever could, the struggle for their country was, in a sense, forced upon them. Andrew took it on voluntarily, from his deep sense of shared humanity.

Andrew's colleagues were the people of East Timor and others struggling for justice. He was not liked by governments or diplomats the truths he spoke were often uncomfortable for those in power. But East Timor's independence owes a lot to those truths and to the people who spoke them, more than it owes to institutions and governments who discovered East Timor after the struggle was won.

We hope that East Timor's new government remembers and honors its friends from those long, difficult years, and that it will prioritize celebrating these human relationships over flattering powerful institutions. But even if it doesn't, the people of East Timor the many who were fortunate to know Dr. Andrew McNaughtan personally and the many more who owe their freedom partly to his work will treasure him and continue his commitment to justice.

LH Bulletin V5No1