Carrascalão

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Several East Timorese politicians came from the Carrascalão family .

Family history

Fazenda Algarve of the Carrascalão family in the municipality of Liquiçá

Manuel Viegas Carrascalão senior was born in 1901 in São Brás de Alportel , on the Portuguese Algarve in a poor family. He became a journalist and trade unionist and therefore came into conflict with the Portuguese dictatorship . He is described as an anarchist and bomber and was general secretary of the anarchist syndicalists . Manuel was deported to Portuguese Timor , was released from Ai Pelo prison due to good conduct and married the local resident Marcelina Guterres , which was considered improper by the Portuguese colonial rulers. The marriage resulted in 14 children.

During the Japanese occupation of Timor , Manuel rebelled against the occupiers instead of fleeing. The Japanese therefore imprisoned him in a detention center for two years. As a reward for the resistance, Manuel received the Fazenda Algarve , a plantation in Suco Leotala , near Liquiçá, from the Portuguese government . Here he grew coffee, rubber and tea as a large landowner. Carrascalão became a respected member of the colony's society.

The Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1975 heralded independence for East Timor. Three of Manuel Carrascalão's sons; Manuel junior , Mário and João ; founded the União Democrática Timorense UDT ( Democratic Union of Timor ), the first political party in East Timor.

But when it became clear that the left-wing FRETILIN would receive greater popular support, the UDT attempted to come to power with a coup on August 11, 1975. In the street fighting in Dili , however, the FRETILIN was able to prevail, whereupon UDT supporters were persecuted and mostly fled to the Indonesian West Timor . At the end of the year FRETILIN proclaimed the independence of East Timor, but only a few days later Indonesia occupied the country.

Manuel senior had meanwhile become mayor of Dili . At the time of the Indonesian invasion, he was in Portugal for eye surgery. The Indonesians refused to return him, so that he finally died penniless in Portugal.

The three brothers Manuel junior, Mário and João worked actively for the resistance movement, albeit with different means. While João went into exile, Manuel and Mário worked politically in East Timor, Mário was even provincial governor for a time and exposed serious human rights violations by the Indonesian military. In 1999 the East Timorese voted in a referendum for the independence of their country from Indonesia. This was followed by violent clashes by pro-Indonesian militias , killing several thousand people. Manuel ( Manuelito ) Carrascalão, son of Manuel Viegas Carrascalão, was killed in the massacre in the house of Manuel Carrascalão .

After the Indonesians left, João was Minister of Infrastructure under the UN administration and chairman of the UDT for several years. He died in 2012. Mário was chairman of the conservative Partido Social Democrata PSD ( Social Democratic Party ) and has been a member of the East Timorese parliament since 2007 . From January 22, 2009 to September 6, 2010, he was the second Vice Prime Minister. He died in 2017, the day after he was awarded the Colar da Ordem de Timor-Leste , East Timor's highest order. Manuel was briefly President of the National Council , the transitional parliament during the UN administration of East Timor before the country's final independence. He died in Dili in 2009.

With its 290 hectares, the Fazenda Algarve is the only plantation in East Timor that is still owned by the same family as it was in colonial times. Everywhere else small farmers have taken over the land. The family has more than a hundred members in East Timor, Portugal and Australia .

The children of Manuel Viegas Carrascalão senior

More family members

  • Pedro Miguel Carrascalão, son of Mário Viegas Carrascalão. Founder of Carsae FC (now Boavista Futebol Clube Timor-Leste ).
  • Sonia Dora Stoffel Cidrac Viegas Carrascalão, daughter of Mário Viegas Carrascalão.
    • Giovani Carrascalão Saleh, grandson of Mário Viegas Carrascalão.
    • Miguel Carrascalão Saleh, grandson of Mário Viegas Carrascalão, businessman.
  • João Miguel Carrascalão, son of João Viegas Carrascalão.
  • Sandra João Carrascalão, daughter of João Viegas Carrascalão.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c José Ramos-Horta: Funu. East Timor's struggle for freedom is not over! Ahriman-Verlag, Freiburg 1997, ISBN 3-89484-556-2
  2. ↑ Sapo: Prisão do Ai Pelo, “preservar a ruína e construir um museu local” , June 4, 2012 , accessed on May 29, 2016
  3. ↑ a b c STL: Perfil: Giovani Carrascalao Saleh , December 11, 2017 , accessed on January 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b Hamish McDonald: Instigator of civil war later reconciled with his foes , Sydney Morning Herald, March 9, 2012