Virgílio dos Anjos

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Virgílio dos Anjos (battle name: Sihik Ular or Ular Rihik ; born May 14, 1953 in Viqueque , Portuguese Timor ; † January 6, 2010 in Dili , East Timor ) was an East Timorese guerrilla of the FALINTIL who fought against the Indonesian occupiers.

origin

Anjos comes from a Timorese noble family in what is now the municipality of Viqueque. His father Celestino, a tribal leader, fought on the side of the Australians against the Japanese in the Battle of Timor in World War II . Celestino dos Anjos was the only Timorese to receive a Loyal Service Medal from General Thomas Blamey in 1945 , but this was not presented to him until February 1972 due to administrative inefficiency. In addition, Celestino dos Anjos was the only Timorese to parachute over Timor under combat conditions . Together with two Australian officers, he was to do reconnaissance work on the island in 1943 after the main forces of the Australians had withdrawn. They escaped Japanese persecution for two months. One of the officers, Captain Arthur Stevenson, kept in touch with the family until the Indonesian invasion in 1975.

Life

As a child, Virgilo dos Anjos attended school in Ossu . He then worked for a short time as an assistant teacher before he was drafted into the Portuguese army as a non-commissioned officer . In August 1975 Anjos fought on the side of the conservative UDT , which was defeated by the left-wing FRETILIN in its attempted coup . When the Indonesians invaded a few months later, Anjos joined the FALINTIL, the armed arm of the FRETILIN, and fought against the invaders.

On August 8, 1983, units of the FALINTIL, together with local Ratih under the command of Virgilio dos Anjos, attacked the Indonesian military post in Kraras. 14 soldiers of the 9th Combat Engineering Battalion ( Zipur 9 ) were killed, only one or two soldiers managed to escape. In retaliation, the Indonesian soldiers burned the village of Kraras and, according to the Catholic Church, killed 287 people in the Kraras massacre . Celestino dos Anjos and Virgilio's pregnant wife Hare Kaik, who were killed on September 27, 1983, were among those executed by the Indonesians.

In 1999 Indonesia finally withdrew from East Timor under international pressure. Anjos participated in East Timor, which has been independent since 2002, in the development of the East Timorese Defense Forces (F-FDTL) under the leadership of the military commander in chief Taur Matan Ruak . Anjos received the rank of major. On January 6, 2010, he collapsed at his home in Manleuana (Dili) and died on the way to the hospital. Posthumously awarded the rank of colonel Anjos and was on the National Heroes Cemetery in Metinaro buried. At the funeral service for the popular freedom fighter in Dili Cathedral, the country's political leadership was among the many mourners. On May 20, 2019, Anjos was posthumously awarded the Ordem de Timor-Leste (Collar).

Virgilio dos Anjos left behind his wife Judite, five children and his mother Madalena.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Jill Joliffe: Timorese resistance leader's popularity never dimmed. In: The Age. January 19, 2010
  2. a b "Chapter 7.2 Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances" ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.5 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
  3. ^ Timor-Leste Memória
  4. ^ President of East Timor: PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC DECORATES 25 VETERANS , May 25, 2019 , accessed on May 27, 2019.