In 1983, Monsignor Martinho da Costa Lopes became the first Timorese voice to speak in Canada since the 1975 invasion. He had recently been removed as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Dili – in de facto terms, head of the Timorese Catholic church – for being too critical of Indonesia’s human rights record. Msgr da Costa Lopes came at the invitation of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, meeting Canadian Catholics and also lobbying the government and speaking to the Canadian media.
Images: Martinho da Costa Lopes (Arquivo & Museu da Resistência Timorense, Dili); notes on meeting with da Costa Lopes by Dan Heap MP (Dan Heap fonds, Library and Archives Canada); article in The Globe and Mail (ETAN papers).
The first ETAN newsletter, 1988
The first East Timor Alert Network newsletter came out in early 1988 after ETAN’s start-up funding was approved through the support of the Canada Asia Working Group of the Canadian churches. The first newsletter zeroed in on the visit to East Timor of Jack Whittleton, Canada’s ambassador to Indonesia. In a public relations blunder linked to Canada’s growing partnership with Indonesia, Whittleton accompanied Indonesian Foreign Minister Mochar Kusumaatmadja on a campaign tour of East Timor, appearing to endorse the government party’s campaign. Only the East German and Nigerian ambassadors accompanied him. ETAN began to use episodes like this one to mobilize Canadian public opposition to the government’s close relationship to Indonesia.
Images: First ETAN newsletter, 1988 (ETAN papers); partly-declassified telegram from the Canadian embassy, Jakarta, about the proposed visit (Department of Foreign Affairs fonds, Library and Archives Canada)
Betrayed but not Beaten, 1988
The same year also saw the release of Peter Monet’s film “Betrayed But Not Beaten,” the first documentary to be produced in North America about East Timor. Image: screen shot of Martinho da Costa Lopes from the film.
Canadian solidarity with East Timor 