ABSTRACT
On UN Human Rights Day, 10 December 2005, Cecelia Soares related her memories of the Indonesian invasion to the Inter-Press Service. On 7 December, 1975, she had been married for a year, and three months earlier had given birth to a baby girl. Soares observed:
I used to live near the Dili port and on that day I saw planes dropping Indonesian paratroopers. And that was the day my life was shattered forever…
The next thing I knew there were battleships firing shells. It was frightening. I ran home, grabbed my baby, and then just ran to the hills. I tried looking for my husband, but he was nowhere to be seen.1
