Magno returned to her homeland for the 1999 referendum on whether East Timor should be independent from Indonesia. After the announcement of the result, which was in favor of independence, there were massive attacks by pro-Indonesian militias on the population. Magno and her family, like many other residents, fled to Kupang in West Timor. When militias attacked the refugees there too, the family fled to Bali and did not return to East Timor until after the international intervention force INTERFET arrived in October 1999.