Kirsty Sword Gusmão

Kirsty Sword Gusmão (2010)

Kirsty Sword Gusmão (born April 19, 1966 in Melbourne / Australia ) is the former wife of the East Timorese politician Xanana Gusmão . In addition to English, she is fluent in Bahasa Indonesia , Portuguese and Tetum .

Life

Kirsty Sword is the daughter of teachers Brian and Rosalie Sword and grew up in Melbourne and Bendigo . She was a promising ballet dancer but decided against this career. The University of Melbourne concluded Sword in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) with a major in Bahasa Indonesia and Italian . She also received a Diploma of Education in 1988 .

Sword worked until 1991 as an administrative secretary in the Overseas Service Bureau (today: Australian Volunteers International ). She then went to the UK University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Program as an assistant to the development coordinator. In the same year she traveled to East Timor as a researcher and interpreter for the documentary In Cold Blood: The massacre of East Timor by Yorkshire Television , which reports on the political and social developments in the occupied country.

From 1992 to 1996 Kirsty Sword lived in Jakarta / Indonesia as an English teacher , development worker and human rights activist. At the same time she began to secretly get involved as an activist and spy for the East Timorese resistance. Her code name in the resistance movement was Ruby Blade (Ruby Blade) , later renamed Mukia by Xanana Gusmão .

Sword first met Xanana Gusmão in 1994 while he was in prison for six years in Cipinang Prison in Jakarta. The first contact was made when she taught him English through letters, and at Christmas she was able to smuggle herself into prison by claiming that she was visiting an uncle. It smuggled messages, documents and telephones to Gusmão and offered shelter for East Timorese resistance fighters in Jakarta.

Xanana Gusmão was released in 1999 and the two married a year later in Dili , where they have lived ever since. When she became aware of her work in the East Timorese Resistance, Kirsty was withdrawn from Australia in 2002 as a development worker. In total, Kirsty and Xanana Gusmão have three sons: Alexandre, Kay Olok and Daniel. From 2002 to 2007, Xanana Gusmão was President of the now independent East Timor. From 2007 to 2015 he was Prime Minister and is now Minister of the VI. Government of the country .

Kirsty Sword Gusmão is the founder and chairwoman of the Alola Foundation , which works for women in East Timor. In 2003 she published her autobiography A Woman of Independence .

During the unrest in East Timor in 2006 , she gave interviews and visited Australian troops in East Timor instead of her husband, who was unable to move due to a back pain.

In 2007, Sword Gusmão was sworn in by President Ramos-Horta as Ambassador for Education in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste . In this honorary position, she now represents East Timor at international events on the subject of education and is intended to facilitate the dialogue between the various interest groups on the subject of education, such as the state, church, international, national and non-governmental organizations.

In 2013, Sword Gusmão survived breast cancer. She now also wants to campaign for early cancer detection and control in East Timor.

In 2015, Xanana and Kirsty announced that they were planning a divorce. In the same year Kirsty received the Medal of the Ordem de Timor-Leste .

literature

• Kirsty Sword Gusmão: A Woman of Independence (Pan Macmillan Australia, ISBN 0-7329-1197-4 )

Web links

• ABC Enough Rope interview with Xanana Gusmão and Kirsty Sword Gusmão
• ABC Australian Story episode "Dangerous Liaison"
• Sydney Morning Herald book review of A Woman of Independence
• Alola Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Years of Living Dangerously
2. ↑ Voices, Vibes, Visions. (PDF; 515 kB) In: www.vvvnt2006.com.au. Archived from the original on August 19, 2006 ; accessed on December 26, 2014 (English). 
3. ↑ ENOUGH ROPE with Andrew Denton - episode 86: Xanana and Kirsty Sword Gusmao (18/07/2005) ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} The Age: Australia's spying on East Timor was hypocritical, says Kirsty Sword-Gusmao , December 28, 2013 , accessed December 28, 2013
5. ↑ The World Today - Gusmao in charge of military, Sword says
6. ^ Sydney Morning Herald: For the former first lady, a new battle begins at home , May 5, 2013 , accessed January 20, 2014
7. ↑ Jornal de Notícias: Xanana separa-se da australiana Kirsty Sword , March 21, 2015 , accessed on March 21, 2015.
8. ↑ Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 43/2015 de 6 de Maio, accessed on September 18, 2019.