Leví Bucar Côrte-Real

The injured Leví Côrte-Real and his helper as a memorial

Leví Almeida Bucar Côrte-Real (born May 21, 1972 in Ainaro , Portuguese Timor ) is a survivor of the Santa Cruz massacre on November 12, 1991 in East Timor, which was occupied by Indonesia . A photo of him became an icon in memory of what happened.

Career

Côrte-Real comes from a family of four sisters and six brothers. In his home town of Ainaro, he attended elementary and pre-secondary school. For the twelfth school year he went to the Colégio de São José in Dili , the capital of East Timor . Indonesia occupied the country in 1975 and annexed it the following year. Since then, a war of independence has raged against the occupiers, which should cost the lives of almost 200,000 people by the time they withdrew.

On November 12, 1991, Côrte-Real went to the Church of Santo António de Motael with a roommate . A memorial service was held here by parish priest Alberto Ricardo da Silva for Sebastião Gomes , who had been murdered in the church by Indonesian security forces a few days earlier. Côrte-Real then wanted to return to his accommodation in the Colégio to prepare for the next day's classes. From the church, a demonstration of East Timorese students moved towards the Santa Cruz Cemetery , where Gomes' tomb was located. The cemetery is in close proximity to the Colégio. Côrte-Real was among them.

Indonesian soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators in the cemetery. At least 271 people died and 270 others disappeared forever as a result of the events. Côrte-Real was shot in the stomach. The British journalist Max Stahl captured the scene with a photo of a man holding Côrte-Real desperately in his arms. Côrte-Real fell into a coma. He was taken to the hospital where he could be saved. To this day, Côrte-Real does not know his helper. Côrte-Real returned home three months later. In the meantime, the picture of Max Stahl, along with other reports of the massacre, had gone around the world, which is why Côrte-Real was on the black list ( Indonesian lista mean , literally red list ) of the Indonesian security forces. Côrte-Real went into hiding to protect family members from persecution. His parents made sure that Côrte-Real came to Bali for an English course, but even there he could not be sure that he would not be discovered by the Indonesian secret service. He abandoned his first plan to flee to an embassy so as not to endanger his father, who had meanwhile been interrogated by the Indonesians in Timor . Instead, with the help of the Tata-mailau resistance group (named after the highest mountain in East Timor ), he managed to leave for Macau in 1994 , where he stayed for 15 months.

The complete monument

In 1995 Côrte-Real came to Lisbon . The old colonial power Portugal was a supporter of the East Timorese cause and Côrte-Real got here a residence permit and the possibility of Portuguese to learn in order to integrate to 1996 in the Portuguese society. The East Timor conflict came into the spotlight again this year when José Ramos-Horta and Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in East Timor. In 1997, Côrte-Real was admitted to the University of Coimbra , where he began to study psychology. A year later he switched to a management course at the Faculty of Economics, which he also dropped out in the second year. He later admitted that during this time he was more politically active than worrying about studying. Côrte-Real took part in meetings, street actions and demonstrations in Portugal and Madrid to promote the independence of East Timor. In 1998, Côrte-Real founded the student association Académicos Timorenses de Coimbra (ATC) with other students . In addition to supporting East Timorese students in Coimbra, the ATC should promote the liberation struggle for East Timor and get involved in the protection of human rights. In the first legislative period from 1998 to 2000, Côrte-Real was Vice President of the ATC, from 2000 to 2002 President of the Electoral Commission and from 2002 to 2003 Treasurer. Côrte-Real then lived as a worker in Manchester and Bristol before returning to East Timor, which had been independent since 2002, in 2009. Nobody in his homeland knew at the time whether Côrte-Real was still alive.

The photo of Max Stahl served as a template for a memorial for the massacre that has stood in front of the Church of Santo António de Motael since 2011.

See also

• Lorico Asuwain
• History of East Timor

Web links

• The photograph of the injured Leví Bucar Côrte-Real

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Forum Hakesuk: LEVÍ BUCAR, RAMOS HORTA EA OBRA DO MAX STAHL , November 12, 2018.
2. ↑ George W. Bush Institute: Bishop Alberto Ricardo Da Silva: Santa Cruz Massacre , The Freedom Collection , accessed April 3, 2015.