Twenty years on, Timorese-Australians look back on the struggle for independence

This week, Timor-Leste celebrates 20 years of independence. On 20 May 2002, the United Nations formally handed power to the new Timorese government and, thus, to its people.

Alex Soares is a Timorese-Australian photographer who lives in Perth. To mark the anniversary, Soares photographed and interviewed three cousins: survivors of the occupation who now live in Australia.

They spoke of fleeing into the mountains, covertly aiding the pro-independence Falintil fighters (the military wing of the pro-independence Fretilin party), torture, starvation and of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, where Indonesian forces gunned down at least 250 pro-independence demonstrators.

These interviews have been edited for clarity.

Before Indonesia invaded our country, East Timor, we had such a wonderful life. My village, Fatubessi, was famous for the best coffee. We had a simple life. But we were very happy. We knew everyone and had work. All friends and family together. Very peaceful. Every day I played with all the other kids.

I was already on the mountain. After two weeks alone, I found my family again and they told me: my brother had been killed.

In 1979, we were captured by the Indonesian army. We were staying in Liquiça and were ambushed. I got shot by a soldier in my lower back. I tried to hide, but we were captured. It was October or November.

Now it was my mum, dad and three siblings. Four siblings had died, two brothers and two sisters. Three of them got sick because there was no food or clean water.

My dad, who was really sick, was interrogated and tortured. He passed away shortly after that.

In 1993, I left Timor because the situation was getting worse. I was one of the lucky ones because our family was sponsored by family who already escaped. We bribed our way to Bali and then to Australia.

One day, very early in the morning, we woke up and went with all the young Timorese to mass at Motael church, the oldest in Dili.

I was somewhere in the middle of the group. We got to the cemetery and entered. There were lots of soldiers around but no problem at this point. They were just watching us along the road. We kept singing louder. And then suddenly they started shooting us. The protesters ran inside the cemetery.

I saw people dying all around me. I was lying on the ground. Soldiers came and hit me with the butt of their guns. They hit my chest, hit my head. I was 21 years old.

After they beat us in the cemetery, they threw us in an army vehicle. They took us to Comoro [a suburb of Dili]. They shocked us with electricity: me and three friends. They tortured us. Three months after the massacre, my best fried died because of his injuries.

Three years later, in 1994, some family sponsored us to come to Australia. Before we left in 1994, things got worse. Indonesia was so angry with the Santa Cruz demonstrations because it made the news all over the world.

On the way to Australia, we stayed in Bali for two or three days. One aunty met us in Bali and she helped bring us to Australia. Starting in Australia was a new beginning. Everything was different. Perth was a big city for us and I really missed Timor. We left a sister and other family there. And good friends.

We stayed in the hills of Dare, 20km from Dili, for three months, living with other Timorese families also fleeing the violence. And after Indonesia controlled the city they began looking for a Timorese electrician to come back to town to get the power running in the capital again. We came back to Dili and my dad went back to working as an electrician.

The next morning, my dad was picked up by the Indonesian army. They dragged him out of our house. They took him to a torture house. They beat him, used electric shock treatment and starved him. After torturing him many more times over the next few years he stopped working. We struggled at that time for everything.

We left Timor in 1994 because my dad was really sick. He went to Australia for treatment, sponsored by family and the Timorese independence movement in Australia.