It came several weeks after death and destruction were wrought on the population of East Timor by pro Indonesian militia who opposed the results of the UN-sponsored consultation that had taken place on August 30, 1999.
Sisters Erminia and Celeste were members of the Canossian community. Sr Celeste was superior of the convent in Baucau. Sr Erminia, Italian by birth, had come to Baucau from Manatuto after militia groups some days earlier had destroyed the town.
Br Jacinto was a deacon and worked in the Caritas Office in Baucau. He was planning his ordination for December 1999. Two other seminarians were also in the car.
The gruesome account of their murders is contained in Chega! the report for the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) No 10.15. Some of the Timorese responsible were later charged and given long prison sentences.
It emerged in the trial that the local Indonesian military commander gave orders to the militia group. The leader of the militia group responsible was released last year with a Presidential pardon. The Indonesian military commander close to the militia group has not yet been brought to trial.
Today the Church in Baucau will recall this anniversary at Lautem close to where the incident took place. This anniversary comes a few weeks after a similar anniversary at Suai, on September 6 where three priests and more than 100 others seeking shelter in the church were shot and hacked to death by machetes in the presence of Indonesian military officers. It follows other 10 year anniversaries of massacres that took place throughout 1999, that have also been remembered throughout Timor Leste; in Liquica, Maliana and Dili.
No Indonesian military have been tried in connection with these crimes.
The Government of Timor Leste has not asked the Indonesian Government to hand over those responsible for any of these crimes. It recently released one of those named for the killings at Suai who had been captured some weeks earlier. He was returned to the Indonesian authorities by Timor Leste's President and Prime Minister after requests from the Indonesian Foreign Minister.
The Bishop of Baucau, Basilio Nascimento, was reported in the Australian media as condemning the release and stating that ''We have to forgive but before we can forgive there must be justice''.
It would be timely for Church groups in Australia to take note of Bishop Basilio's statement and support calls for an international tribunal to be established for past crimes in Timor-Leste.
As Pat Walsh, senior advisor to the CAVR Secretariat has recently written: "If Timor-Leste can't deliver justice and Indonesia doesn't want to, then it's an international responsibility - particularly given the nature of the crimes in Timor-Leste and the complicity of many in the international community in those offences."
It will only be when the events such as that remembered today in Timor Leste are dealt with in a just and proper manner that long term peace and forgiveness will reign in Timor Leste.
Fr Leo Wearden MSC is Parish Priest of Wadeye (pronounced Wad-air)
, Port Keats - a tribal Aboriginal Catholic community situated on the western edge of the Daly River Reserve in the Northern Territory. During the wet season Wadeye is cut off from the rest of the world for up to five months. At the time of the murders Fr Wearden was in East Timor. He has had a keen interest in Australia's near neighbour for 30 years. 
