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My name is Adelina da Costa
Belo. I live in Chai. I have three children, two boys
and one girl. I do not have a job. I'm just a (subsistence)
farmer. Everyday I work on the land.
In 1975 I was only a child and I began school that
year. After that I began to learn about my own personal
development and the development of my country, Timor
Lorosa'e. Although I was only little when the Indonesians
invaded my country I understood that the Timorese people's
objective was the liberation of our country. I wanted
to get an education so that I could make a real contribution
to the war and to both the liberation of women and the
liberation of my country. At that time we all ran away
to hide in the jungle at Mount Matebian and because
I was so young I didn't know much except that the people
of Timor wanted freedom for our country.
In 1984, when the Indonesians began to capture and
defeat the refugees hiding in the jungle, the entire
population returned to live in the village again. They
lived and worked there like anybody else but continued
to support the resistance in the bush. I began to work
as a catechist for the church. I taught the Catholic
religion to the children, so that they would know their
religion well. I also worked with the priests and the
nuns to help them teach religion to everybody.
 The
main objective of the Indonesian invasion of Timor was
to colonize this country. As everyone knows, when one
nation invades another, they primarily do so for their
own economic and territorial interests. Although, their
primary objective was to colonize Timor, their objective
was to sexually abuse our women, because they considered
us as sexual playthings or toys.
In 1987, I became a sinner. You all know that we are God's
creatures, we all sin. At that time, I fell into sin because
the Indonesian army oppressed us and forced us into sex
with violence. That violence forced me into sin. Today,
I remind myself that we are all God's creatures and therefore
every one of us is capable of sin. I fell into sin because
of the power of the Javanese forces, and because a man
is physically stronger than a woman. I did not offer myself
to them, they always forced me into it. It was never because
I wanted to do it. Doing this meant that I could stay
alive and I could protect my wider family and other people
from the village who were in the bush with Falintil (the
resistance army). They suspected that we had a relationship
with Falintil and of course we did, because we knew that
we must defend our country.
In 1999, when we knew that we would have the referendum,
I felt that a wonderful light had appeared. My parents
had told me ever since 1975 that this light was possible
for us. Truly, I felt that the bright light of liberation
for which we had all worked and suffered for so long
was about to come upon the people of Timor Lorosa'e.
At this moment the light of liberty shone upon us too,
the women of Timor who had suffered so much. Between
1987 and 1999, I held that light inside me while I lived
in the state of sin. In 1999, we found the light of
liberty. The entire people followed their own will and
chose the option of liberty over autonomy.
At that moment of victory, I knew, at last, that we
would have a country where women's rights were respected.
I feel that men and women can work together to build
a new society that upholds women's rights. When the
light of liberty appeared for us, I felt that we women
would again hold our traditional rights.
Now the men and women of Timor Lorosa'e must work together
to build a new society. We women are always talking about
our rights, but we must each understand how to achieve
our rightful place in society. We women and men need to
know what are our obligations and duties and give each
other a helping hand in establishing the new society in
Timor.
I can work to sustain my children and myself and I
want to tell you that we are finished with colonial
attitudes. The Javanese regime is finished here, and
the colonial regime and attitudes went with them. Any
support for us should be based on realistic possibilities.
We are tired of people coming here to ask us questions
and collecting data but offering us nothing which can
be implemented. Please be aware of our feelings about
this.
Our culture is very different from that of West Timor.
I want to say that, as a citizen, and as a woman from
the east, a Lautém woman, I must have respect
for our culture as it was before the Indonesians came
here. To develop this culture, we must have respect
for it too. Lautém women have the custom of Brideprice.
Brideprice does not mean that we sell our women, like
we sell goods and materials. Brideprice intrinsically
validates our worth as women, our identity as woman,
as citizens of both Lautém and of Timor Lorosa'e
itself.
I was not properly valued in my culture because I got
married during the Javanese regime without a Brideprice.
But I sincerely hope that the next generation will respect
our culture and pay Brideprice. Right now, I know that
there are a lot of men who still oppress women, so I
exhort you all, that as men, you give support to us
women. This is because we are your integrated part,
men cannot reproduce on their own, men and women are
necessary for procreation. Together we will create the
new nation, men and women working together to develop
Timorese culture.
My message to all our leaders and political leaders is
this: when there is war, we women suffer twice over and
because of this, I exhort you to make sure that the suffering
and hardship we endured before, is now over, once and
for all. I ask you all that you do not create another
kind of suffering for women now. When you create wars,
we women suffer doubly. When the Javanese first called
us up for questioning, they then followed us to rape us
like toys. We tell you now that we women are not playthings,
we have worth and dignity. We are citizens just like men
who are forming families, political parties and the new
society. I tell all political leaders again we do not
want any more suffering; we do not accept violence. We
are human beings: we do not want to sell ourselves or
to offer ourselves to be used like dolls. We are not dolls,
we are people and we are God's creatures, we are an integral
part of you and part of the new society of Timor Lorosa'e,
which we will build together.
Our culture is also intrinsically connected with the
Church. Since the time of our grandparents, our culture
is linked with the Church and we respect the Church.
Since the Portuguese came to Timor and brought the Catholic
religion here, we respect the Church as a component
of our culture. Therefore, we want to learn more about
religion as good Catholic citizens.
Most people believe in democracy and everybody knows
that they have civil rights. We talk about rights, but
we need to know how to achieve them in practice. What
are the societal and political structures through which
we can realize them? Rights and these structures must
be tied together. It should be impossible to speak about
political structures without speaking of rights at the
same time. If only 10 men or only 10 women make up the
decision making structure, it means that we will not
have seen the value of rights. Therefore, I exhort us
all to respect rights and place them firmly within our
new structures. If a woman is capable she has the same
rights to a seat in the parliament as a man does. For
example, if we are to have ten people within a political
structure, the places should go to five men and five
women according to each one's personal ability. It is
not that we women want to take over the seats of power
but we want to take our equal place.
I do everything I possibly can to take care of my three
children. This is because I do not want them to ever
have to live as we were living before in Javanese times.
My life before was full of suffering and full of sin
because of the situation. I want my children to have
a better life, to be able to live with their kin, to
build the new Timor. I also ask all of you to give some
support to my three children so that they can continue
at school, in order that they might find some light
in their lives like their friends who still have both
their parents.
We thank you for your attention and understanding.
We ask you to give us some financial help for the widows
and children scattered throughout East Timor today so
that we may earn some independent income for ourselves
and enable us to care for our children.
2 September, 2001
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