Fernando Cavaterra

Fernando José Duarte Silva Cavaterra (born June 12, 1949 in Sé , Évora , Portugal ) is a former soldier of the Portuguese Navy with the service number 167 (marinheiro n.º 167) , who was considered missing in Timor for several years .

background

See also : End of Portuguese rule on Timor

After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, the Portuguese colony Portuguese Timor was also to be prepared for independence, but the União Democrática Timorense (UDT) tried to take power in the colony with a coup on August 11, 1975. There was a civil war against FRETILIN. Governor Mário Lemos Pires evacuated the Portuguese administration and soldiers to the island of Atauro off the colonial capital Dili by the 27th . Even after the FRETILIN had won the war, Pires refused to return to Dili because he lacked instructions from Lisbon . On November 28th, FRETILIN unilaterally declared East Timor's independence from Portugal, but Indonesian troops landed in Dili just nine days later . East Timor was annexed by Indonesia. Governor Pires and his people were brought to safety from their refuge on Atauro on December 8th by Portuguese corvettes João Roby and Afonso Cerqueira . In East Timor, there followed 24 years of war of liberation before Indonesia withdrew in 1999 and the country came under UN administration for three years .

Career

Cavaterra was born in the municipality of Sé in the World Heritage City of Évora and spent his youth in Pero Pinheiro under difficult and humble circumstances. In 1966 he volunteered for service in the Navy. In 1967 he became a second class cabin boy (2 ° Grumete) .

After serving in the Portuguese colonial war in Niassa ( Portuguese East Africa ) between 1968 and 1971, Cavaterra was transferred to Dili in Portuguese Timor in June 1972 with the rank of sailor (Marinheiro) . With him, his wife Carmen, who had married Cavaterra only two months earlier, moved to the Southeast Asian colony. Cavaterra received a post as a teleman in the naval command (Comando da Defesa Marítima)

Cavaterra was on duty there on the night of August 26th from one to seven in the morning. Then he drove to the house of a couple of friends in Lahane , three kilometers away , where Cavaterra and his wife lived. Cavaterra had promised the homeowner that, despite the night's sleep, he would be brought to safety in a coffee truck to Ermera in the mountains. When Cavaterra returned to Dili, it was already dark again. After a quick meal with a friend in Taibesi , he drove his scooter to the marine transmitter, where he was supposed to start work again at one o'clock in the night. In the vicinity of the transmitter, however, numerous Timorese gunmen blocked his way. Cavaterra learned from them that the Portuguese had withdrawn to the island of Atauro several hours ago. Cavaterra was now on her own. Two weeks later he was able to accommodate his wife Carmen in a Japanese tanker that was carrying several refugees to Darwin , Australia . From here a plane brought them back to Lisbon.

To survive, Cavaterra joined the UDT. He had previously helped João Viegas Carrascalão , one of its leaders, to set up a communications network for the party. He later noticed that the UDT was influenced by Indonesian forces. When it became clear that the FRETILIN would win the war, UDT fighters fled towards the Indonesian West Timor , including Carrascalão and Cavaterra. But before the border they encountered an insurmountable enemy line. Cavaterra decided to avoid the FRETILIN fighters by sea together with Carrascalão's youngest brother Francisco, his wife and young daughter and three other people. They paddled on two barges connected with bamboo sticks from Batugade for 25 hours until they reached Kalabahi on the Indonesian island of Alor . It is an irony of fate that the Portuguese troops were still in sight with the governor on Atauro, which Cavaterra knew nothing about. On December 8th, the day of the evacuation of the governor of Atauros and thus the final end of Portuguese rule on Timor, Cavaterra was already back at the UDT, which was now cooperating with the Indonesians. A military aircraft had flown Cavaterra from Alor to Atambua in West Timor. From there it went on to Balibo , which was already in Indonesian hands before the open invasion on December 7th. Here Cavaterra was commissioned to set up a party broadcaster for the UDT, but the beginning of the Indonesian attack on Dili changed everything.

Cavaterra was flown to Kupang , the capital of the Indonesian West Timor , in a military helicopter, which included UDT boss Francisco Lopes da Cruz . There he was mistreated and forced to do propaganda broadcasts in Portuguese for the Indonesians, known as “Radio Dili”. A policeman took pity on Cavaterra and brought him into the vicinity of the Indonesian governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur , General El Tari . El Tari defended the Portuguese. He promised to bring him back to Portugal one day. Cavaterra became El Tari's servant, chauffeur and mechanic. During this time Cavaterra was able to visit Manuel Viegas Carrascalão , another brother of João, who was also imprisoned in Kupang. But in 1978 El Tari was poisoned for campaigning for a united Timor , independent from Indonesia. Cavaterra had to flee Kupang. He hid in Soe and built a radio repair shop there. A few months later he moved to Kefamenanu , then tried to reach Dili by sea. Due to the obstacles, he gave up the plan and first went to Atambua, where he met João da Costa Tavares , an acquaintance from the UDT, who was now the Indonesian administrator of the East Timorese Bobonaro . He brought Cavaterra to Maliana , the capital of Bobonaro. Cavaterra now signed receipts there as the alleged owner of a company that was responsible for setting up the local power grid. The real owner was Tavares, who was able to award the public contract to himself.

In the 1980s Cavaterra returned to Dili, where Manuel Carrascalão took him into his service. Manuel's brother Mário Viegas Carrascalão was meanwhile governor of the Indonesian East Timor . When the Indonesian Suharto regime wavered in 1995 , Cavaterra dared to write his first letters to Portugal, initially through the diocese of Dili . On the advice of Manuel Carrascalão, Cavaterra turned to the General Directorate of Public Service, the Pension Fund and the President. All of these letters were forwarded to the Navy. For the Navy, however, Cavaterra was considered deserted. On July 7, 1976, an arrest warrant was issued against him and on January 1, 1990, he was dishonorably discharged from service. The National Republican Guard (GNR) asked every year to his old father Asdrubal in Pero Pinheiro if he knew where his son was. The father thought this was long dead. In January 1991, a military court of Marine Fernando Cavaterra had the charge of desertion acquitted in absentia. It could not be proven that Cavaterra was aware of the withdrawal order on August 26, 1975. In addition, the order came only half an hour before the evacuation, and at that time it was not possible for Cavaterra to reach Atauro independently. In spite of this, he was now denied any assistance or pension claims. Cavaterra had to remain in East Timor.

On August 30, 1999, the East Timorese voted in a referendum organized by the United Nations for independence from Indonesia. Pro-Indonesian militias had already started to terrorize the population beforehand . On April 17th, they stormed Manuel Carrascalão's house and killed several people, including Manuel's son Manelito (see also: Massacre in Manuel Carrascalão's house ). Cavaterra narrowly escaped because he had just left the house.

Cavaterra's wife Carmen arrived in Lisbon in bad health after her flight from Timor and physical abuse by other refugees on the tanker. After a hospital stay, she moved to her parents' house in Lugar da Estrada in Régua , where she has lived ever since. In 1976 Carmen received a letter from the navy that she had lost all privileges due to her because her husband had deserted. In the following years she tried unsuccessfully to find out something about her husband's fate. It wasn't until she got cancer in 1993 that she gave up. She burned the unanswered letters from Timor two years later. In 1999 she heard on the radio for the first time that among the dead in the massacre in Manuel Carrascalão's house there might also be a Portuguese named Fernando Cavaterra. She contacted the SIC television station for more information and learned that Cavaterra had survived and that Manuel Carrascalão's family were now under the "protection" of the Dili Police General Command. There was an initial, brief phone call with her husband 24 years after they said goodbye. Fernando Cavaterra returned to Portugal and to his wife in June 1999. After necessary medical treatment, he tried to sue the Navy for compensation, reinstatement in his old position and payment of the lost wages. Cavaterra was now unemployed on welfare. Manuel Carrascalão called this an injustice, as all former Portuguese officials who stayed on Timor would receive their pensions. Carrascalão said he tried to contact the Portuguese authorities himself but failed to get through.

The legal dispute ran until 2008. On February 13, the final judgment was given by the Supreme Administrative Court. The court recognized that Cavaterra only lived in hiding in Timor and therefore could not have any contact with the Navy. However, Cavaterra could not credibly prove that he had not had the opportunity to come into contact with the Navy until 1995. At the latest in his time as an employee of Manuel Carrascalão, under the protection of Governor Mário Carrascalão in the 1980s, he would have had the opportunity to do so. In addition, Cavaterra voluntarily joined the UDT fighters and then voluntarily stayed in Dili. He was also charged with the fact that Cavaterra did not join his wife on the tanker.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Diário da República Eletrónico: Acórdão de 13 de Fevereiro de 2008. Apêndice de 2008-06-18 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} VISÃO: O último fantasma de Timor , October 25, 2001 .