DILI, 10 November 2025 (TATOLI) – Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has expressed deep sorrow over the passing of Robert Domm, the Australian journalist whose courage and determination helped bring the truth of Timor-Leste’s struggle for self-determination to the world.
“The Government and people of Timor-Leste are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Domm, whose courage and determination helped to bring the truth of our struggle for self-determination to the world,” the Prime Minister said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Gusmão recalled that in September 1990, at a time when few in the world were aware of the devastation in occupied Timor-Leste, Robert Domm made a perilous journey to the country and climbed Mount Bunaria to meet with him and the FALINTIL leadership.
“He was the first foreign journalist in fifteen years to have direct contact with the Resistance,” Gusmão said. “His interview with me, broadcast by the ABC’s Background Briefing, broke through the silence that had surrounded Timor-Leste since 1975.”
The Prime Minister said Domm’s report carried a powerful message to the world that the Timorese struggle for self-determination and resistance against foreign military occupation was still alive.
Domm’s connection to Timor-Leste dated back to the 1970s, when he first visited as a merchant sailor on a vessel transporting cargo and fuel between Darwin and Dili, then under Portuguese colonial control.
He later returned in 1989, when Indonesia reopened the country to tourists for the first time since 1975, and again in 1990, entering under the guise of a tourist but secretly on a mission to interview Gusmão for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Gusmão described Domm’s journey as one of extraordinary courage, recalling that it was coordinated by the Timorese Resistance “with military precision” and involved more than two hundred Timorese who guided him through villages and checkpoints at great personal risk.
“He was a humble and gentle Australian who slept beside us on the ground of Mount Bunaria, ate with us beneath the cover of the jungle, and walked with our resistance soldiers as a comrade and as a friend,” Gusmão said. “His concern for the Timorese people touched me deeply.”
Domm’s report, Gusmão added, brought international recognition to the humanity and determination of the Timorese people. However, it also provoked reprisals. “Following the broadcast, the Indonesian military carried out large-scale operations in our mountains and many of those who helped him lost their lives in the cause of our freedom,” he said.
Even after 1990, Domm remained a steadfast ally of Timor-Leste, speaking out against the occupation and co-authoring the book East Timor: A Western Made Tragedy with Mark Aarons, which exposed the complicity of foreign governments and deepened global understanding of the country’s suffering and right to independence.
“He remained a friend and advocate of Timor-Leste long after independence was restored,” Gusmão said.
In 2015, twenty-five years after their first meeting, Gusmão and Domm returned to Mount Bunaria in Ainaro to commemorate the event and honor those who lost their lives during the struggle. The site of their meeting has since been recognized as a place of historic significance.
In recognition of his contribution, Robert Domm was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste in August 2014, an honor that symbolized the nation’s gratitude for his role in sharing its struggle with the world.
“Robert’s contribution is part of our nation’s history,” Gusmão said. “His courage, decency, and sense of justice will remain forever in our nation’s memory.”
“Robert’s soul now rests in Mount Matebian, alongside his Timorese sisters and brothers,” the Prime Minister concluded, extending the Government’s deepest condolences to Domm’s family, friends, and colleagues.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Filomeno Martins
