An exchange of messages between me and Max:

J. Ramos-Horta to Max:

“Don’t die because your departure from Timor will cause such national pain and trauma! And I don’t want to see it. I will just run away somewhere. So stay with us on Earth.”

Max STHALL to me:

“I wish I could decide that but I am working on it! A luta continua em todas as frentes!”

Yes Max is battling the pitiless cancer, surrounded by his wife Dr. Ingrid, his children, Malin, Leo, Ben and Barnaby. I asked my sister Rosa to go to Brisbane as I have not been able to do it myself because Australian authorities will not make exceptions. Rosa has been there for many days now .

***

Max Christopher Stahl came to Timor-Leste in 1991, to shoot a travel video about diving.

As he has described it, he fell in love with the Timorese people. The Timorese people have not only loved him in return; across our country, we honor him as one of the true heroes of our struggle.

To our good fortune, on 11 November, 1991, someone mentioned to him that there would be a pro-democracy protest the next day, in the Santa Cruz Cemetery. Max brought his camera. He kept the camera rolling. Soldiers had been pre-positioned. And they opened fire on the peaceful protesters. From inside the cemetery, protected behind gravestones, Max filmed the soldiers in free firing mode, the dead and the dying. Knowing he would be arrested, he dug a whole and hid the film. Later in the darkness of night, and with absolute “sang froid”, Max returned to the cemetery, climbed over the wall and retrieved the highly explosive visual, incontrovertible evidence of outrageous cruelty of uniformed special forces firing on young men and women. Hundreds were killed that day. Max had documented it all .

The film was smuggled out and made its way to major TV networks around the globe . The internasional community saw the first solid evidence of the suffering and death of the Timorese people, including the cold blooded murder of completely peaceful protesters.

There are only a few key points in the history of Timor-Leste where the course of our nation turned toward freedom. This was one of those points. It was the first time our message broke through to the world. Human rights networks went into action. Senators, Congressmen and Parliamentarians came to our side. And this happened when one man was willing to risk his life to document up close what was happening and smuggled the message out of our country.

After winning awards for his coverage of the Santa Cruz Massacre, Max could have returned to England. The son of an Ambassador, Oxford educated, he had many choices before him. He chose to stay with us. He learned our language and traveled across the island, filming and interviewing, recording our history, and celebrating our people.

Max continued to document key events in our struggle, including the horrific events of 1999 in the leadup to the referendum for independence. In September, 1999, he filmed evidence of the Suai Massacre and other atrocities. In November, 1999, he traveled to the mountains with the Timorese seeking refuge from militia, capturing for our history the faces of women and children fleeing silently at night under threat of death. His knowledge, experience and footage have been invaluable to the UN and others documenting our treacherous road to independence.

Max has also documented our joy, our families, our music, our rebirth as an independent democracy. He has wept with us, yes. But he has also celebrated, laughed, and loved with us.

On some occasions over the years he stayed for months in my home in Dili. We celebrated as well, when Max found love again, married, and began raising a family among us.

The history of Timor-Leste can never be written without the story of Max Stahl. Timor-Leste owes him a debt of gratitude that can only be partially repaid by honoring him as the man who arrived from foreign shores and walked with us on our darkest nights, came with us into the light of day, and helped to shape our nation forever. We bless Timor-Leste’s treasured son.