On October 15, Resistance organised a National Day of Action for freedom in East Timor. Across Australia people rallied around the demands “Indonesia out of East Timor” and “ Australia out of the Timor Gap”. The day mobilised thousands of people and highlighted the need for ongoing solidarity with the struggle in East Timor. Sujatha Fernandes conducted the interviews at the Sydney march.

Nicola Best, 15, and Elaine Chew, 15, high school students

Elaine: We're here because we believe in human rights and the people over there are just getting treated really badly. We know that the Indonesians have invaded East Timor and the Australian government is supporting them by buying oil.

Nicola: I think it is sad that Indonesia can't do anything without guns, they can't just let East Timor be its own country, side by side with Indonesia.

Elaine: At high school we don't get to hear much about issues like these, but I think that if young people in high school could hear about these issues, they would be really concerned, they would get really involved. We need to educate people our age more, because I didn't know anything about it until I looked it up myself. But I think that we can't be pushed around by the government; we have to stick up for East Timor.

Alico Santos, Fretilin Youth

We are here today to pressure the Australian government into stopping its links with the Indonesian government, which is carrying out killings and abuses in East Timor. I was involved with the youth in East Timor, and we made protests in the city and around the country to show that the East Timorese people are still fighting. We are still suffering killing and torture and pressure by the Indonesian troops, but we are still fighting. We ask people in Australia to organise, on their campuses and in their workplaces and to pressure the Australian government into looking at East Timor's case.

Harold Mucho, Fretilin

The East Timorese are a unique race, and as a unique race we have the right to live as a people and to live in an independent country. This is why we struggle. We struggle for our culture, we struggle for our humanitarian existence, we struggle for our human rights. Protests like the National Day of Action today are very important. Victory is not going to be achieved on a governmental level. It is going to be achieved by the masses.

Mannie De Saxe, gay rights activist

I support the cause of the East Timorese people because I think that all groups should have self-determination. As a South African, I have been involved in the struggle for freedom for so many years, and I don't see that East Timor is much different in that sense. East Timor has been overrun by the Indonesian colonisers who are just there for their own benefit, and the East Timorese have just been crushed. There are many groups all over the world who are struggling for self-determination and freedom, such as the Palestinians, and I support it. Australian people should become involved and come to actions like this National Day of Action. They should come out on the streets and make a noise to show the ALP and Gareth Evans where they can stick their foreign policy.

Carolyn Horta, 10, exiled East Timorese

The Indonesian government should give East Timor independence because it is a good country and we can help lots of people. When Australia was at war with Japan, we helped them. Now it is really slack that they don't help us. But I would like to thank those people who came out today to help East Timor, thank you very much.

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