East Timor: Journalist Max Stahl ‘changed destiny of nation’ – ex-President Xanana Gusmão

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East Timor: Journalist Max Stahl ‘changed destiny of nation’ – ex-President Xanana Gusmão

1:11 CAT | 28 Oct 2021

Still image of the footage of the Santa Cruz massacre, the 1991 massacre of 271 protesters against Indonesian rule in East Timor. by Max Stahl.

The former President of East Timor, Xanana Gusmão, on Thursday mourned the death of journalist and documentary-maker Max Stahl, recalling that his work “changed the destiny of the nation”.

In a letter to his widow Xanana Gusmão highlighted the fact that Stahl’s footage of the Santa Cruz massacre “exposed the repression and brutality of the Indonesian occupation” as well as all the archival work on the country’s history done subsequently, and considered it a legacy for the nation.

“Few people have been able to make such a significant contribution to the nation,” he stressed, saying that the journalist and documentalist was “loved by the Timorese” and that the country “is in mourning”.

Max Stahl died in a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, victim of a long illness.

The journalist was decorated by the state and parliament awarded him Timorese nationality in 2019.

Christopher Wenner, who became known as Max Stahl, began his connection to East Timor on 30 August 1991 when, “disguised as a tourist”, he entered the territory to shoot a documentary for British independent television. He interviewed several leaders of the resistance and, after leaving because of his visa, he returned, entering by land, and ended up filming the Santa Cruz massacre on 12 November of that year.

Source: Lusa