Without mainstream media apparently noticing , the death took place in Darwin recently of Antonio Maia , believed to be in his late 90s, who during WWll helped Australian commandos in East Timor and later gave evidence in Tokyo of Japanese atrocities carried out in what was then a Portuguese colony.
He is shown above , a Free East Timor button on the turned up brim of his hat, joking with John "Paddy " Kenneally, with a broad Irish brogue, an outspoken supporter of the East Timor struggle for freedom , who had been a commando in East Timor .
At the funeral service for Maia , Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith, a strong supporter of East Timor since the l970s , honoured by the East Timor regime , presented a eulogy .
After the service, held in the Holy Family Catholic Church , Wesley-Smith provided this blog with background information on and photographs of Maia ,
The above photo shows Antonio holding a carving for a sacred East Timor house built on Wesley-Smith's rural property in Darwin to highlight the East Timor struggle. It was transported south in a shipping container and somehow was eventually lost in Sydney , without anyone knowing how , or where it ended up .
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jose Ramos Horta said McNaughtan , who worked in the Katherine Hospital , south of Darwin , had played a big part in the long, bloody struggle. At great risk to his life, he had gone to East Timor in the l980s and 90s with a camera and captured the situation under the oppressive Indonesian army. The film had been smuggled out to the world .
Wesley-Smith has a copy of an interview Dr McNaughtan had with Antonio in which he outlined how as a young man he had helped the Australian commandos in East Timor and detailed the many atrocities carried out against the people by the Japanese ,often for helping the Australian soldiers.
On one occasion , Wesley-Smith and Dr McNaughtan went to East Timor to celebrate the country's newly won freedom . Sharing a bedroom there , Dr McNaughtan warned Wes that people had told him ( McNaughtan ) that he snored a lot , and that he might be disturbed.
Wes was forced to flee the bedroom because of the deafening snoring. In the morning , he told McNaughtan that he had a dire medical problem .
The medico laughed at his diagnosis . However, Wes said he himself had undergone a bypass because of cholesterol , and he reckoned Andrew was clogged up with the stuff.
In any case, Dr McNaughtan died soon after, aged 50.