I first met John Martinkus in 1997, and he would sometimes stay at our Australians For a Free East Timor activist house in Darwin on the way to and from Timor-Leste. I also liaised with him via my work with the East Timor International Support Centre and met him many times over the years. I counted him as a friend and am devastated by his sudden death at much too young an age.

In preparation for the successful nomination of John for an Order Of Timor in 2024, I was asked by Jose Antonio Belo and Sebastião Guterres to write a short record of John’s journalistic efforts for Timor so I spoke with John and wrote down much of the following.

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John Martinkus, born in Australia in 1969 of Lithuanian parents, was studying at the University of Melbourne when the Santa Cruz massacre occurred on November 12, 1991. He travelled to Darwin in March 1992 and tried to join the Missão Paz em Timor on the Lusitanio Expresso, but his media accreditation with a Melbourne community radio station was not deemed sufficient.

John made his own way to East Timor with his girlfriend Jenny in November 12, 1994. They stayed at the Hotel Dili (scarily visited by Indonesian intelligence) and also travelled to Bacau. From talking to Timorese he wrote an article about the situation, published in Green Left Weekly.

After moving to Sydney, Harold Moucho and Keiran Dwyer set John up with contacts inside Timor. He went........

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