Interviews with Constâncio Pinto

People were sympathetic of our cause in Jakarta or in Timor-Leste. So we had some good relationships, even with people in the armed forces, the ABRI, or some intelligence people. And also with people in establishment. For example, relationship between Xanana Gusmao, at that time is the chief commander in the jungle, and Mario Carrascalao, which was a former Indonesian governor in Timor-Leste.

As of the result of their rapprochement, they had a ceasefire – a very brief ceasefire – in 1980s for them to negotiate, talk. But unfortunately the ceasefire broke down, because there was no agreement. Specifically, I didn’t know what they were discussing.

But we more or less tried to get the attention of the Indonesians and also the international community. Yes. And we always tried to negotiate, dialogue with the Indonesian. Because we thought that dialogue is the only way at that time, was the only way to solve the problem.

Constâncio Pinto is the ambassador of East Timor to the United States. Still a child when the Indonesian military occupied the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975, he fled to the mountains with his parents. The family remained in hiding for several years before returning to Dili, the capital, where Pinto attended high school and college. While still in school, Pinto became a leader of the underground movement for self-determination. In 1991 he was arrested, detained, and tortured for several days. The military authorities released him on the condition that he serve as an informant, but instead he escaped from Timor and eventually from Indonesia. After his escape, Ambassador Pinto studied at Brown University and served as the Timorese self-determination movement’s representative in the United States. He developed close working relationships with members of Congress and other U.S. human rights advocates and, when Timor achieved independence in 2002, he became a diplomat. He was appointed ambassador in 2009.