Nino Konis Santana (12 January 1957 in Vero, Tutuala, Lautém District â 11 March 1998 in Ermera District) was an East Timorese freedom fighter who led the Falintil militia between April 1993 and his death in March 1998 during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, succeeding after the latter's capture in 1993. Santana died in an accident, after he was shot in the leg during an Indonesian ambush. He was succeeded by Taur Matan Ruak.
Nino Konis Santana was born on 12 January 1957 in Vero, suco Tutuala, Lautém District, in what was then Portuguese Timor. His father, Ze-Makar or Jee Makaru, a farmer, died of heart disease in 1982. He was mother was Poko-Tara or Poko-Tana. The oldest child in his family, he had a sister, HermÃÂnia Santana, and a brother, Victor Vieira de Araújo. His brother Victor also went on to join Falintil and died in combat on 10 June 1980 near Paitchau mountain in Tutuala. When he was born, Santana's mother named him Je Konisu. On 3 March 1964, at the age of seven, his parents had him baptized at the Catholic chapel in Tutuala. Upon being baptized, he was given the Christian name Antoninho Santana, and soon started going by "Nino". Santana was described as a good-natured, clever child. From an early age, he liked reading, writing poetry, and playing sports including football, basketball, and volleyball.
Santana began his education at the local school in Tutuala in 1963, at the age of six. Recognized for his intelligence, in 1968 he enrolled at the Colégio Dom Bosco in Fuiloro, a Catholic school run by the Salesians of Don Bosco. Santana completed fourth grade in Fuiloro in 1971, with sources varying on where he continued his studies afterward. According to some sources, he completed his pre-secondary education at a Catholic school in Baucau. Another source states that he went to the capital, Dili, and studied at a private school led by Francisco Xavier do Amaral, later the first President of Timor-Leste in 1975. Sources agree that in 1973 Santana entered the Escola Engenheiro Canto Resende, a teachers' college in Dili, completing a two-year course as a primary school teacher in 1975. In Dili, Santana lived with several cousins and friends: Lino, Armando da Silva, and Abel da Cruz.
During this time, the 1974 Carnation Revolution occured in Portugal, and with it the prospect of independence for East Timor. As indigenous East Timorese political parties and student associations began forming, Santana initially remained apolitical, preferring to focus on his studies in the hope of finding work as a teacher to support his family. In a letter, he wrote:
Through UNETIM, Santana began developing relationships with students from other educational institutions, and soon began sympathizing with the pro-independence movement. At the end of the 1974âÂÂ1975 academic year, he joined Fretilin, the left-wing pro-independence resistance movement. By 1975, he was one of the leaders of the National Union of Timorese Students (UNETIM), which was affiliated with Fretilin. After completing his teacher training course in 1975, Santana returned to Lautém and worked as a teacher.
Following the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, Santana went to the mountains to join Fretilin's resistance activities. Based in , he became active in the Timor Popular Youth Organization (OPJT), and was given responsibility for the youth and population in the Tutuala area. He tried to reestablish schooling in the area, which had been disrupted, but was unsuccessful due to the ongoing invasion. Instead, he carried out a literacy campaign among the local population. While in Mehara, Santana wed LuÃÂsa Gonzaga in a customary marriage, without a Catholic ceremony. They had one son who died, less than a year old, in 1978 near Loré.
Between 1977 and 1979, Santana served as Fretilin's deputy commissioner responsible for the eastern point sector. In MayâÂÂJune 1978, the Indonesian military launched an "encirclement and annihilation" operation, forcing Santana and others to flee from Mehara to Matebian in Baucau District. His wife and many relatives were captured by the Indonesians. In Matebian, Santana served as a delegate to the Fretilin political commissariat. In November 1978, the base in Matebian fell and the Fretilin members there split up, with some heading west while the others, including Xanana Gusmão, Taur Matan Ruak, and Santana, went east. On the night of 22 November 1978, they went to Lospalos and made contact with local supporters to continue their resistance activities.
Shortly after, on 31 December 1978, Fretilin leader Nicolau Lobato, was killed by Indonesian forces. This was a major blow to morale for the resistance and its leadership began fracturing. During this period, Santana was mentored by Xanana Gusmão, who told resistance supporters to "cover yourself with the enemy's cloak." Fretilin leaders went from village to village, staying with local families, supported and hidden by the population. Xanana soon began working to reorganize the resistance movement, working closely with Santana in his role as a political commissioner. His efforts were quickly realized in the east, but showed less progress in the west, where resistance leaders were isolated and demoralized, and many areas lacked any Fretilin command structure.
In 1979, Santana was reportedly captured by East Timorese soldiers serving in the Indonesian military, but managed to escape into the jungle with the help of some other armed East Timorese. From 1979 to 1980, he served as political assistant for Fretilin for the Talisma region.
On 3 March 1981, Santana attended Fretilin's national conference, where Xanana Gusmão was elected national political commissar and commander-in-chief of Falintil, Fretilin's armed wing. After the conference, Fretilin divided East Timor into three military regions: Funu Sei Nafatin (Tetum: "The War Will Continue") in the east, Nakroman ("Light") in the center, and Haksolok ("Joy") in the west. Santana was put in charge of the south-central section of the Nakroman central region. The Nakroman region was initially commanded by VirgÃÂlio Freitas (nom de guerre Kalisá) until his death in combat in February 1982, and then by (Mau-Nana). In April 1982, Xanana sent Santana back to Tutuala to support Fretilin's efforts to organize among the population there. He remained in Tutuala until March 1983.
In 1983, Santana was appointed political commissioner for the Nakroman military region in central East Timor, a position he would hold until 1991. In early May 1985, he attended a meeting of top resistance leaders, including Xanana Gusmão, Taur Matan Ruak, Lere Anan Timur, and others, with the goal of reorganizing the clandestine movement. Afterwards, Santana was tasked with leading the western Haksolok military region, which borders Indonesian West Timor. He wrote in a letter at the time that he was "happy to be fighting here, in a land I had never been to before, and whose population I had never met, but who welcome me and give me all the moral, political, material support, and even in matters of life, so that I can fight." Between 1986 and 1991, he often accompanied Xanana on visits to the western region to organize popular support for the guerrillas there and establish better interregional contacts.