Government of Timor-Leste

FALINTIL - Defence Force of Timor Leste (F-FDTL) General Chief of Staff, Major-General Lere Anan Timur, accompanied by Brigadier-General Ximenes “Sabika”, Brigadier General Cornélio Ximenes ‘Mau Nana”, Colonel Calisto Santos “Coliati” and Commander of the Military Police Unit, Major Abel da Costa Xavier (Niki), participated in the ceremony for the twentieth anniversary of the death of Soldier Leonard W. Manning, by the Pro-Indonesia militia, at Debu-Lulik suco, sub-district of Tilomar, Municipality of Cova Lima.

In his speech, Major General Lere Anan Timur, stated that “this day is an extremely important day for all Timorese, as today, here, at Debu-Lulik, we recognize. I should point out that not only Timorese lost their lives to our independence, there were also citizens of other countries who died in Timor-Leste, so that today we can be a sovereign and independent nation, recognized Worldwide”.

On behalf of the F-FDTL and the Government, I express our thanks to our comrades, our friends, ou New Zealand partners, for their compatriots who were victims here, in our land, Timor-Leste, on July 24^th , twenty years ago”.

Timor-Leste went through a very difficult situation, that, without the international commitment of New Zealand, Australia and other countries, who came to our country in 2000, could have led to a situation where we all died. Because your intervention allowed us to solve our problem, so we used to say that our nation was built with body and blood. If we respect this body and blood, we also respect our sovereign nation, because as I said, and I repeat again, not only Timorese died for this nation, but also others, like our late comrade Soldier Leonard W Manning, New Zealand’s military, who died in our nation, Timor-Leste”.

Today we pay tribute to Soldier Leonard W Manning, for his sacrifice and his family’s. We extend our tribute to other New Zealand citizens who died in the struggle for Timor-Leste’s independence, who are Gary Cunningham, who died on October 16^th, 1975, in Balibó, Kamal Bamadhaj, on November 12^th, 1991, in the Santa Cruz Massacre, in Dili, Warrant officer Tony Wasler, on November 30^th, 1999, sergeant Billy White, on April 25^th, 2000, and Soldier Dean Johnson, on July 28^th, 2002.

Participated also in the ceremony, the former Prime Minister, Rui Maria de Araújo, Ambassador and Ambassadress of Korea, Ambassador of New Zealand, the Defence Attachés of Australia, Portugal, Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia and the representatives from the community of Covalima and Tilomar.