How are mass atrocities remembered in Timor-Leste? This slideshow overviews depictions created by the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation. Presented at Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies, 2013.

1. David Webster, Bishop’s University
FRAMING TRUTH, MEMORY AND
RECONCILIATION IN TIMOR-LESTE

2. • Portuguese Timor
• Internal political conflict over
decolonization 1974-75
• Indonesian invasion 1975, annexation
1976
• Encirclement and famine 1976-79
• Rhetoric shift from “national
liberation” to unity, shared suffering &
human rights
• Three fronts: military/symbolic,
clandestine, diplomatic
• 200,000 dead (consensus number –
church, solidarity groups)
• Late shift to include language of
Fourth World indigeneity
• 1999 independence referendum
followed by scorched earth, forced
relocation of over 50% of population
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND &
TIMORESE RHETORICS

3. CHEGA!
Report of the Timor-Leste Commission on Truth,
Reconciliation and Reception (CAVR), 2005

4. • Considered one of the strongest truth commissions
• 1,371 community reconciliations
• 7,824 statements taken (Argentina c. 7,000)
• Public hearings
• Research into death tolls (Benetech – 100,000+)
• Direct victim support
• Archives
• Publications etc
• Final report 5 vols. (online, Bahasa Indonesia, English 2013 forthcoming)
• Plain Guide
• Radio broadcasts weekly
• Comic book version
• Video
• Poster series
• “This was done to further CAVR’s mission to heal, to build a sense of shared history, and to promote a culture of human rights.”
CAVR WORK

5. “The analysis and writing of East Timorese history is a critical step
in nation-building…. History telling that acknowledges complexity,
that makes space for the voice of those often silenced, and that
opens the way for open-minded reflection can make a contribution
to building a nation where the idea of strength is based on respect
for others, pluralism and democracy based upon the equality of
citizens.” (Chega! online version 3: 5)
CHEGA! AS SEARCH FOR TIMOR-
CENTRIC HISTORY

6. • Sweep away the Indonesian official
narrative (artificial colonial border, civil
war ending in petition for liberation
preventing “another Cuba,”
international interference)
• New narrative – an oppressed people
fighting for freedom, abandoned,
refusing to be silenced, struggle
sanctified by suffering, repentance from
disunity, unification and building
towards freedom
• Implicit map for future: internal unity,
non-confrontational diplomacy
• Plotted as a Catholic narrative of sin,
suffering, repentance, resistance,
redemption
CHEGA! REPORT AS NARRATIVE
OF A USABLE PAST

7. THE COMARCA
Location and shifting exhibits as narratives

8. READING THE COMARCA, DILI

9. • Sole prison 1975-86
• Burned 1999
• “… the renovated Comarca
was intended to be a memorial
to the denial of human rights
and symbol of hope and
transformation” (exhibit
caption)
• Renovation proposed by ex-
political prisoners association
and funded by government of
Japan
• CAVR funding from 13
governments (inc. CIDA), UN
agencies, EU, NGOs
COMARCA 1999

10. Poster image, Comarca, 2006 Poster image, Comarca, 2013
“A HISTORY OF TIMOR-LESTE” IN
POSTERS (2005)

11. THEMES IN THE POSTERS
• Focus on 1974-75 and 1998-99
• Invasion and repression (TNI soldiers
6/20, RI flag 3/20 + implied 2/20)
• Division and unification (6/20)
• Suffering (6/20)
• Catholic church (3/20)
• Resistance (3/20)
• International aspects (betrayal giving
way to support 7/20)
• Top figures pictured:
• Xanana Gusmao (4/20, 6/20 inc. images)
• Bishop Belo 3 (+ Msgr da Costa Lopes 1)
• Ramos-Horta, Suharto, Wiranto: 2 each

12. CHEGA! EXHIBIT
A “must-see exhibition” (Lonely Planet Timor-Leste)

13. FRAMING THE ENTRY POINT:
“FLOWERS CAN GROW IN A PRISON”

14. • CAVR as a process of collection
and synthesis to create a national
narrative (usable past)
• Chega! report as a synthesizing
text
• Exhibit does no collecting of
artifacts, but includes the graffiti
already in place
• A “sacred space” filled with
text/image panels to build a
narrative
COMARCA AS MUSEUM

15. A HISTORY OF SUFFERING

16. (AREA 1) “CAVR: DALAN BA DAME
[PAZ] – CAVR: ROAD TO PEACE”

17. AREA 2: HISTORY
Obverse: chronology (Timor as global issue)
Reverse: Major governments/civil society

18. A HISTORY OF SUFFERING AND
INTERNATIONAL COMPLICITY

19. “The inclusion of Ramos Horta [as co-Nobel laureate] was a ringing
endorsement of Resistance diplomacy and its peace plan by one of the world’s
most prestigious bodies” (Chega paragraph 406, exhibit caption)
TIMORESE RESISTANCE &
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY

20. • China, France, Russia, UK, USA
• Indonesia
• text also in Bahasa Indonesia, only use
in new exhibit
• Indonesian information on Chega!
• Chega! published by Gramedia
• Highlighting role of Indonesian civil
society  democratic Indonesia as
inheritor of civil society rather than
army legacy?
• Portugal, Australia
GLOBAL COMPLICITY IN
GENOCIDE

21. “Civil society’s contribution to the resolution
of the Timor-Leste question was only possible
because civil society existed and was
permitted to function freely as an
independent sector in many parts of the
world or because, as in Indonesia and Timor-
Leste itself, civil society asserted itself against
repression. Timor-Leste’s experience is that a
robust civil society is critical to the proper
functioning of individual societies and the
international community.
“Civil society should take from its Timor-Leste
experience that, while it has to be strategic, it
is most effective when it (a) sticks to
principle, (b) is politically disinterested, (c) is
non-violent, (d) open to everybody’s
participation and (e) independent but ready
to cooperate with government and business
when possible.” (Chega! cited on exhibit
panel)
PROTESTS AS PERFORMANCES FOR
GLOBAL AUDIENCES

22. AREA 3: THE CELLS
Human rights violated

23. PRISONERS OF THE COMARCA

24. • Arbitrary detention, torture & ill-
treatment as most common rights
violation
• Responsibility predominantly
Indonesian security forces (army,
police) but also armed Timorese (one
panel each for UDT 1975 and Fretilin
1975-79)
• Tens of thousands detained
• “dark cells”
• Mapping detention & torture
• National Police
• Casa Europa
• Diplomatic residences
• Hotels
• Western Union
MAPPING ARBITRARY
DETENTION

25. AREA 4: RIGHTS PROCLAIMED
Human rights exhibits & visitor participation

26. VICTIM TESTIMONIES FROM
PUBLIC HEARINGS

27. THE BURNING, 1999

28. • Rights spelled out & asserted
• Children’s rights
• Abduction, forced sexual servitude…
• Disappearances
• Forced displacement
• The great famine, 1977-78
• Violations of international humanitarian
law
• Violations of social & economic rights
• Right to adequate standard of living; right to
dispose freely of country’s own natural resources
• Killings and massacres
• 102,800 +/- 12,000 (methodology)
• Principal CAVR finding: crimes against
humanity, 1975-99
WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

29. THE GUEST BOARD

30. END OF THE ROAD TO PEACE?
Final image, AMRT
Final poster, CAVR series