The appearance of this work coincides with East Timor’s first months as an independent country. This fact provides the reader with a sense of hope and optimism in the midst of a grim story of oppression, genocide and nationalist struggle against overwhelming odds.

Kohen begins his biography of Bishop Carlos Belo by tracing his early life in East Timor from childhood to his entry to the Catholic Salesian Order, with a lengthy period of training in Portugal. Kohen skilfully transmits some of Belo’s enthusiasm to the reader as the young priest returns to East Timor in 1974. However, the lights were about to go out in this territory.

The invasion by Indonesia in December 1975 is graphically described. Perhaps one of the starkest sections of this work is the description of the aftermath of the invasion during 1975-79, when almost one third of East Timor’s population of around 700,000 people perished.

This was genocide on a grand scale. Yet Indonesia should not bear the guilt alone, as Kohen’s meticulous research proves that those member nations of the international community who could have deterred Indonesia from its course of action, principally America and Australia, were largely silent during this dark period. Indeed, the Australian Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, so outspoken an advocate of Vietnamese self-determination, was prepared to dismiss the concept of an independent East Timor as "unviable ... and a potential threat to the region" (p. 106).

The book’s theme of abandonment of the East Timorese is found in other ways. Also compromised is the Vatican, which Kohen reports as bowing to Indonesian government pressure to discipline its anti-occupation clergy in the far off diocese of Dili.

Belo emerges as a genuine hero from this well presented biography. He is seen to be something of a reluctant politician, forced to engage in temporal matters given the crisis surrounding him, while remaining "first and foremost, a bishop, a priest, a man of God" (p. 20).

He also demonstrates Christ-like courage as a peace-maker, often sheltering East Timorese youth fleeing Indonesian security forces, and also negotiating agreements between East Timorese protesters and Indonesian forces to avoid bloodshed. This was not always successful, and the November 1991 massacre of 270 East Timorese mourners in a cemetery at Santa Cruz is one of the best documented cases of Indonesian army genocide.

Recognition of Belo’s mediating role came with the visit to East Timor by Pope John Paul II in 1989, and especially with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. By the latter date Belo’s prestige and influence was so substantial that his continuing calls for an independence referendum for East Timor finally bore fruit in 1999. He can fairly be considered as the father of independent East Timor.

This work is well written, incisive and accessible. Kohen has succeeded in making it sufficiently popular in style, but at the same time rigorous enough to inspire confidence in the historical detail being presented. This work provides an excellent testimony of church leadership in a struggle for national independence.

Peter G. Riddell

This review was published in The Church Times, No. 7149 (25 February 2000), 17.