Andrew McNaughtan

Andrew McNaughtan (born March 20, 1954 , † between December 22 and 24, 2003 in Sydney , Australia ) was an Australian doctor and East Timor activist.

Career

McNaughtan was studying medicine at the University of New South Wales in 1975 and when he heard a speech by Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on East Timor he was so outraged that he began to get involved in politics after graduating. The country had declared itself independent from Portugal on November 28 , but was occupied shortly afterwards by Indonesia , with the approval of Australia. McNaughtan spent a year in Nicaragua as a volunteer doctor in 1983 , learning Spanish. After the Santa Cruz massacre in Dili , the capital of East Timor, in 1991 , he began to campaign directly for the Southeast Asian country. At the time, McNaughtan had a job at Katherine Hospital, near Darwin . He became a member of the Australians for a Free East Timor AFET. His home at 25 Mosec St Ludmilla later became a kind of headquarters for the East Timor activists of Darwin. Even when MaNaughtan moved to Sydney for family reasons , he rented the house cheaply to an activist so that it could continue to be used for meetings.

In addition to actions, writing letters and demonstrations in Darwin, McNaughtan collected pictures of East Timor during World War II and organized photo exhibitions on the subject. Back in Sydney, McNaughtan became chairman of the Australian East Timor Association NSW AETA and continued to lobby for East Timor. During the Indonesian occupation he traveled to East Timor four times, mostly with his film camera to document and for interviews. His recordings of student activists who, accompanied by Indonesian soldiers, encouraged residents of East Timor to participate in elections are considered a historical document. At the end of August 1999, he, Jude Conway and Sally-Anne Watson were arrested by the Indonesian military and deported for campaigning to take part in the independence referendum . After the independence referendum, he went back to East Timor in September 1999 to help as a doctor after the Indonesians' retaliation . He was mainly active in the western part of the country, partly even before INTERFET arrived in these regions.

McNaughtan also dealt with East Timor's claims against Australia in the Timor Sea and was considered an expert on the subject.

McNaughtan passed away after a pathological examination between December 22 and 24, 2003. He was found dead on Christmas Eve in his bed in his Sydney home.

Awards

On the tenth anniversary of McNaughtan's death, a memorial cross was erected for him on the road from Dili to Aileu , which looks in the direction of the Tatamailaus . In September 1999, McNaughtan and Sister Joan of the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies drove a truck loaded with rice to Aileu. The residents had returned to their destroyed homes and asked for help. On the journey they offered many returnees a ride. At the place where the cross stands, they drove out of the thick fog and saw the Tatamailau, East Timor's highest mountain, towering above the clouds. McNaughtan smiled and said to the nun, "This is the happiest day of my life."

In 2014, McNaughtan received the Insígnia des Ordem de Timor-Leste posthumously from East Timor’s President Taur Matan Ruak . Andrew's cousin Nigel accepted the medal on behalf of him.

Web links

• Memories from companions of Andrew McNaughtan (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} UNSW: Dr. Andrew McNaughtan , accessed November 19, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Tempo Semanal Sabadu: Estado TL condecorados Membros da Solidaridade no dia 30 de Agosto de 2014 , August 30, 2014 , accessed on August 30, 2014 on TIMOR CONDECORA .
3. ↑ Jornal da República: Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 25/2014 , August 27, 2014 , accessed on November 13, 2019.