Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo

Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo (born 1959 or 1960) also known as Sister Esmeralda^[1] is an East Timorese Catholic nun and human rights advocate. She was the head of the Canossian Convent in East Timor.

Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo
Born	1959
Occupation	Catholic Nun Human Rights Advocate

Early life and education

Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo is the daughter of a local chief of Hatulia in Ermera. She was educated.^[1][2]

Career

As a young woman she worked with the East Timorese resistance before joining the Roman Catholic Canossian order of nuns. During the violence before independence, she worked hard to protect families and children.^[1][3] Sister Esmeralda was an outspoken supporter of independence, saying that the referendum would show the world once and for all that the East Timorese desired independence.^[4]

During this period there were several women who formed the main 'nerve centres' of political work in East Timor including, Sister Lourdes (in Dare) and Sister Esmeralda, who took responsibility for 1,500 or more refugees in the United Nations Mission in East Timor compound in 1999.^[5][6] Despite directly confronting the local militia, Sister Esmeralda and 700-800 refugees were forced from their convent, at gun point. She led the group of mostly women and children to a UN compound.^[7][8] Sister Esmeralda worked closely with the United Nations in East Timor.^[3]

In 1999, she contacted the Vatican news agency and pleaded for help from the outside world, warning that, when the United Nations left, the militias would go on a killing rampage.^[9][10] Sister Esmeralda feared that the pull out of the UN would lead to massacres.^[11]

In 2001, as part of the Inter-religious Tolerance project working group, Sister Esmeralda told "major stake holders" and representatives from Catholic Relief Services of her upbringing in a multi-religious community.^[12]

References

1. Cristalis, Irena; Scott, Catherine; Andrade, Ximena (2005). "Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo: freedom in the forest". Independent women: the story of women's activism in East Timor. London: Catholic Institute for International Relations. pp. 31–32. ISBN 9781852873172. OCLC 62906698.
2. "Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania on August 9, 2002 · Page 4". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
3. Robinson, Geoffrey (2011). If you leave us here, we will die: how genocide was stopped in East Timor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691150178. OCLC 694831594.
4. Records of East Timor, 1999 Archived 2008-01-02 at the Wayback Machine
5. de Araujo, Fernando (2003). "The CNRT campaign for independence". Out of the Ashes. Destruction and Reconstruction of East Timor. ANU Press. pp. 99–116. ISBN 0975122916. JSTOR j.ctt2jbjgr.15.
6. Cristalis, Irena (2009). East Timor: a nation's bitter dawn (2nd ed.). London: Zed Books. ISBN 9781848136533. OCLC 592756143.
7. Dili, Marie Colvin in (2012-02-26). "Baby clothes on the barbed wire as militias close in". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
8. Lamb, David (1999-09-19). "In Tent City Camp, Refugee Relives E. Timor Massacre". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
9. Irish Times 9 Sep 1999
10. Dunlap, Jay (1999-09-19). "Genocidal Strife Targets Church in East Timor". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
11. Samantha., Power (2008). Chasing the flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the fight to save the world. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 9781594201288. OCLC 159822532.
12. "Peace and reconciliation in East Timor". ReliefWeb. 2001-12-10. Retrieved 2018-01-19.