EAST TIMOR: DILI: SCHOOL (V)

(6 Oct 1999) Eng/Indonesian
VOICED BY: Louise Bates
Classes have resumed at the only operating school in Dili which for weeks served as a refuge for thousands of East Timorese hiding from pro-Jakarta militia.
At the height of the anti-independence militia rampage, up to two-thousand people sheltered at the Sanpoyosef High School.
VOICE-OVER:
00.01
As peace takes hold in Dili, children are slowly returning to school.
00.05
At the capital's only working school, seventy students now arrive for classes.
00.09
It's the first time since anti-independence militiamen sent a wave of terror across East Timor that these children have felt some sense of normality.
00.17
The school is said to have survived an attack by the militia thanks to the bravery of one of its teachers.
00.24
The Jesuit priest says only his students' education mattered.
00.27
SOUNDBITE: (Indonesian) Eduard Ratu Dopo Teacher and Jesuit Priest
00.31
Long before the chaos took place, he says, the school took a stand that no matter what the situation, teaching would continue as long as possible, and as long as there were still students to teach.
00.47
During the fighting, people from all over Dili fled to the sanctuary of the school grounds.
Many are still there and students combine their normal lessons with helping the International Red Cross feed the refugees.
00.59
SOUNDBITE (English) Mateus Da Costa, Student
"Even though it is still so bad, I still believe with myself that I am still a student so my duties are to study and study hard for building my nation which is East Timor."
SUPER CAPTION: Mateus Da Costa, Student
01.15
For now the school will remain a place of shelter and learning, where students can begin to comprehend their nation's
troubled route to freedom.
01.25
VISION ENDS
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