Mission Peace in Timor

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The mission "Peace in Timor" ( Portuguese Missão "Paz em Timor" ) was an action by independence and peace activists to draw attention to the ongoing occupation of East Timor by Indonesia . About 120 activists tried to get media coverage from Australia to East Timor with the ferry Lusitânia Expresso in March 1992 .

background

On November 28, 1975, the previous colony of Portuguese Timor declared itself unilaterally independent as East Timor . Indonesia began open invasion on December 7th and officially annexed East Timor the following year. Apart from Australia, the annexation was not recognized internationally. East Timor was still considered "Portuguese territory" while a guerrilla war raged in the country . At least 183,000 people, a quarter of the population, died as a result of the occupation and its direct consequences, such as famine and disease.

On November 12, 1991, at least 271 people were killed by the Indonesian military in the Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, the capital of East Timor . Film recordings of the incident by the British Max Stahl caused a sensation worldwide and brought the conflict back to the world's public consciousness.

Ride the Lusitânia Expresso

The head of the mission was the Portuguese Rui Marques , director of the Fórum Estudante magazine , on whose initiative the mission was launched. The ship's commanding officer was Manuel Luis dos Santos. The passengers from 23 countries consisted of journalists such as António Sampaio and a team of RTP , students and others such as the former Portuguese President António Ramalho Eanes . The official goal of the trip was that the activists wanted to lay flowers in the Santa Cruz cemetery for the victims. The Portuguese government under Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva covertly supported the mission. The activists' point of contact was the then State Secretary for Youth, Nuno Ribeiro da Silva . The government financed the trip of the European activists from the meeting place in Lisbon to the Australian port of Darwin .

The Lusitânia Expresso , a ship of the Lusitania Ferries, sailed from Lisbon with 15 crew members to Darwin, where it arrived on March 8, 1992. The next day, the Lusitânia Expresso , with the activists on board, left Darwin for Timor . The flag of the United Nations and that of the countries of origin of the participants were set.

On the morning of March 11th, Timor was already in sight, the Lusitânia Expresso was prevented from continuing by four Indonesian warships. Helicopters flew over the ferry. The message came over the radio, “This is Papa Kilo Alpha India, Indonesia's warship. You are now in Indonesian territorial waters. ”There was a threat of sinking the ferry as we continued our journey. Marques then decided to turn away and return to Australia in order to be able to bring the images of the sea blockade to the international media. The flowers were scattered in the sea.

Legal aspects of the sea

The Indonesian government, aware of the ship's imminent voyage and in view of the unrest in Dili in November 1991, refused to allow the Lusitânia Expresso to enter or pass through its territorial waters on February 25, 1992, arguing that the mission would cause and cause public unrest poses a threat to Indonesian security. In doing so, she relied on Article 25 (3) Rights of Protection of the Coastal State of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allows any innocent ship to pass through . However, it is disputed whether this extremely vaguely worded article, which allows the use of weapons against a ship that ignores the ban, also covers the right to refuse passage even if it does not pose a direct military threat.

consequences

Looking back on the events, the organizers of the trip stated that the main objective of attracting the attention of the international media had been "fully achieved". A stable foundation has now been built for media attention. You had eight minutes on CNN , an editorial in the Washington Post, and made the front page of the New York Times . It was clear from the start that one could not simply have passed the warships. Otherwise you would have been sunk within three minutes. In 2012, some of the mission's participants traveled to the now independent East Timor and laid flowers at the Santa Cruz Cemetery.

Videos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f RTP: Líder da missão do Lusitânia Expresso a Timor diz que objetivo foi "plenamente alcançado" , March 8, 2017 , accessed on September 17, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f RTP: Os timorenses nicht esquecem a viagem do "Lusitânia Expresso" , 2012 , accessed on September 20, 2019.
  3. ↑ Asia & the Pacific Policy Society: António Sampaio , accessed September 17, 2019.
  4. ^ Donald R. Rothwell: Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea: The UNCLOS Regime and Asia Pacific State Practive. In: Donald R. Rothwell, Walter Samuel Grono Bateman (Eds.): Navigational Rights and Freedoms, and the New Law of the Sea. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2000, p. 74 ff., Here: p. 92 f.
  5. ↑ Marinús Pires de Lima & Nuno Filipe Pombo Nunes: MOVIMENTOS SOCIAIS EM TIMOR , accessed on September 20, 2019.