Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Dili Massacre, a pivotal event leading to global awareness of the intolerable situation in East Timor under Indonesian occupation. The slaughter of people in the Santa Cruz Cemetery eventually resulted in the UN supervised ballot on August 30th, 1999, with a 75.8 percent vote for independence. As more details of the horrific event came through a rally was held in Darwin, and there was a march on the Indonesian Consulate at Stuart Park. Teenage Timorese girls carrying flowers crossed the road one at a time. Darwin activist,Rob Wesley-Smith, says there were speeches ; a special song for the occasion was sung by June Mills; more than 120 people laid down on the road, above, in a line representing the Santa Cruz victims ; Elder Veronica delivered a haunting wail into a microphone held by Wesley - Smith.
