"The pathos of East Timor lies in the fact that in an age of instant communications, in which the victim's grief is seen and heard around the world, argued over by statesmen and kept alive in the public mind which allows hope for redress--its suffering is muted by indifference, remoteness, and underdevelopment...Mr. Ramos-Horta's book presents a modest, more-in-sorrow-than-anger account of his bitter experience of the world's indifference to Indonesia's aggression."
-from The New York Times Book Review upon the original publication of Funu in 1987

"...the Noble Committee hopes this award will spur efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in East Timor based on the people's right to self-determination."
-from the Nobel Committees's announcement of the awarding of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta, for their "sustained and self-sacrificing contributions for a small but oppressed people"