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Ten years on, no justice for E. Timor's Suai massacre victims
Hundreds of people lit candles and held prayers in East Timor on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of one of the worst massacres in the country's history.
Sitting stoically outside an incomplete church in the southern East Timor city of Suai, where up to 200 civilians including priests were killed on September 6, 1999, Manuel Soares prayed silently for his dead son and kidnapped daughter Juliana dos Santos, or affectionately known as Alola.
Indonesian military group Laksaur vice-commander Egidio Manek had "taken" her away as a war trophy and forced her to marry him in neighboring West Timor, he said.
"Every month, I send her some clothing for the three children she now has," he added.
East Timor's First Lady Kirsty Sword Gusmao had named her non-profit organization Alola Foundation in her honor.
"The people who suffered in 1999, those families won't even come to the church," Soares said.