Local memory practices in East Timor: Disrupting transitional justice narratives

International Journal of Transitional Justice

Volumn 5, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 434-455

  Kent, Lia ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864785502     PISSN: 17527716     EISSN: 17527724     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijr016     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. I thank Thomas Davis, three anonymous reviewers and the editorial team at IJTJ for comments and suggestions on an earlier draft. Some of the material in this article was presented in a different form at the Timor-Leste Studies Association Conference, 'Understanding Timor-Leste,' in Dili, East Timor, 2-3 July 2009, and was published in the conference proceedings
2. UN Transitional Administration in East Timor Regulations and 2000/15. 2000/11
3. UN Transitional Administration in East Timor Regulation 2001/10.
4. East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, (9 March 2005), (accessed 12 July 2011). http://www.etan.org/et2005/march/06/10tor.htm Terms of Reference for the Commission of Truth and Friendship
5. Indeed, more than 10 years after the referendum, not one Indonesian official has been successfully prosecuted for any 1999-related crime.
6. Joseph Nevins, A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)
7. David Cohen, 'Seeking Justice on the Cheap: Is the East Timor Tribunal Really a Model for the Future,' East-West Center Asia Pacific Issues 61 (2002): 1-8
8. David Cohen, Intended to Fail: The Trials Before the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2003)
9. Megan Hirst and Howard Varney, Justice Abandoned? An Assessment of the Serious Crimes Process in East Timor (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2005
10. Megan Hirst, Too Much Friendship, Too Little Truth: Monitoring Report on the Commission of Truth and Friendship in Indonesia and Timor-Leste (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2008).
11. The fieldwork is part of a broader qualitative research project on the disjuncture between the official claims made for UN-sponsored transitional justice in East Timor and community discontent. It included in-depth semi-structured interviews with approximately 100 survivors, community leaders and other key actors. Interviews were carried out in strict conformity with the requirements of the University of Melbourne's human ethics committee. Approval for the project was granted on 16 February. For the full project. 2007
12. Lia Kent, 'Justica Seidauk Mai (Justice Is Yet to Come): Rethinking the Dynamics of Transitional Justice in East Timor' (PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 2010).
13. Christopher J. Colvin, 'Purity and Planning: Shared Logics of Transitional Justice and Development,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(3) (2008): 416.
14. Rosemary Nagy, 'Transitional Justice as Global Project: Critical Reflections,' Third World Quarterly 29(2) (2008): 280.
15. Claire Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008).
16. Chandra Lekha Sriram, 'Justice as Peace? Liberal Peacebuilding and Strategies of Transitional Justice,' Global Society 21(4) (2007): 579-591.
17. Kieran McEvoy, 'Letting Go of Legalism: Developing a "Thicker" Version of Transitional Justice,' in Transitional Justice from Below: Grassroots Activism and the Struggle for Change, ed. Kieran McEvoy and Lorna McGregor (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008).
18. 'Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies,' UN Doc. S/2004/616 (2004); Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rule of Law Tools for Post-Conflict States (2006).
19. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, 'Invoking the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Rebuilding: A Critical Examination,' William and Mary Law Review 49 (2008): 1347-1374.
20. Nicole Fritz, 'Made to Order? Transitional Justice Initiatives in the Developing World, or the Truths We Should Be Telling,' in Global Justice and the Bulwarks of Localism: Human Rights in Context, ed. Christopher L. Eisgruber and András Sajó (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005)
21. Gerry J. Simpson, Law, War and Crime: War Crimes Trials and the Reinvention of International Law (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007)
22. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois, 'Introduction: Making Sense of Violence,' in Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology, ed. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Philippe Bourgois (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 27.
23. Tim Kelsell, Culture under Cross-Examination: International Justice and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
24. Eric Stover, The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in the Hague (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).
25. Veena Das and Arthur Kleinman, 'Introduction,' in Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery, ed. Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Mamphela Ramphele and Pamela Reynolds (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
26. Veena Das, 'Trauma and Testimony: Implications for Political Community,' Anthropological Theory 3(3) (2003): 293-307
27. Veena Das, Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007).
28. Rosalind Shaw and Lars Waldorf, 'Introduction,' in Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence, ed. Rosalind Shaw and Lars Waldorf, with Pierre Hazan (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).
29. Sally Engle Merry, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
30. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (Princeton, PA: Princeton University Press, 2005).
31. Alexander Laban Hinton, 'Introduction: Towards an Anthropology of Transitional Justice,' in Transitional Justice: Global Mechanisms and Local Realities after Mass Violence, ed. Alexander Laban Hinton (Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010)
32. Tobias Kelly and Marie-Bénédicte Dembour, 'Introduction: The Social Lives of International Justice,' in Paths to International Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives, ed. Marie-Bénédicte Dembour and Tobias Kelly (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
33. For a recent analysis of how domestic political elites may use transitional justice mechanisms in very different contexts and for various local reasons.
34. Jelena Subotić, 'The Paradox of International Justice Compliance,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 3(3) (2009): 362-383 .
35. Michael Leach, 'Difficult Memories: The Independence Struggle as Cultural Heritage in East Timor,' in Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with Difficult Memories, ed. William Logan and Keir Reeves (London: Routledge, 2008).
36. Parliamentary Law 3/2006.
37. An internal political conflict took place between East Timor's two major parties, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente, or FRETILIN) and the Timorese Democratic Union (União Democrática Timorense, or UDT), following an armed coup by the UDT on 11 August 1975. See, Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), Chega! (2005).
38. Claire Rawnsley, 'East Timor: A Theology of Death: Massacres, Memorials Rites and Reconciliation' (paper presented at PeaceWorks: Third Triennial Conference of Women Scholars of Religion and Theology, Melbourne, Australia, 23-26 January 2004).
39. Simon Robins, An Assessment of the Needs of Families of the Missing in Timor-Leste (York: Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit, University of York, 2010)
40. Tanya Hohe and Rod Nixon, Reconciling Justice: 'Traditional' Law and State Judiciary in East Timor (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace, 2003).
41. Gracilda, Lautem, East Timor, 6 August 2007.
42. James W. Booth, 'The Unforgotten: Memories of Justice,' American Political Science Review 95(4) (2001): 777-790.
43. Michael Humphrey and Estela Valverde, 'Human Rights, Victimhood, and Impunity: An Anthropology of Democracy in Argentina,' Social Analysis 51(1) (2007): 197.
44. Michael Humphrey and Estela Valverde, 'Human Rights Politics and Injustice: Transitional Justice in Argentina and South Africa,' International Journal of Transitional Justice 2(1) (2008): 83-105.
45. Elizabeth G. Traube, 'Unpaid Wages: Local Narratives and the Imagination of the Nation,' Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 8(1) (2007): 9-25.
46. NGO staff member, Dili, East Timor, 9 July 2009.
47. Galuh Wandita, Karen Campbell-Nelson and Manuela Leong Pereira, 'Learning to Engender Reparations in Timor-Leste: Reaching Out to Female Victims,' in What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (Brooklyn, NY: Social Science Research Council, 2006).
48. Ana Maria, Liquica, East Timor, 4 July 2008.
49. Fiona C. Ross, Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (London: Pluto Press, 2003).
50. coordinator of Uma Feto, Dili, East Timor, 19 May 2007.
51. Jill Jolliffe, 'The Living Memory Project,' Southeast Asia Digital Library, http://sea.lib.niu.edu/inst/living.html (accessed 12 July 2011).
52. member of the 12 November Committee, Dili, East Timor, 9 July 2009.
53. Yayasan Hak, 'Independence Day: Cause for Celebration or Damnation of 24 Years of International Complicity in the Illegal Occupation of East Timor,' East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (18 May 2002), http://www.etan.org/et2002b/may/12-18/18hak.htm (accessed 12 July 2010).
54. Eric Brahm, 'Transitional Justice, Civil Society and the Development of the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies,' International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 9(4) (2007): 62-72.
55. Janet Hunt, 'Local NGOs in National Development: The Case of East Timor' (PhD diss., RMIT University 2008).
56. generally, David Backer, 'Civil Society and Transitional Justice: Possibilities, Patterns and Prospects,' Journal of Human Rights 2(3) (2003): 297-313.
57. Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions (London: Routledge, 2011).
58. 'Sites of Justice-Related Efforts,' La'o Hamutuk Bulletin 2(6-7) (2001), http://www.laohamutuk.org/Bulletin/2001/Oct/bulletinv2n6.html (accessed 12 July 2011).
59. An open letter to the presidents of Indonesia and East Timor in May 2007 from national and international NGOs: 'Open Letter to the Presidents of the Republics of Indonesia and Timor-Leste Regarding the Indonesia-Timor Lester Commission of Truth and Friendship,' Uniya (23 May 2007), (accessed 12 July 2011). http://www.uniya.org/news/news_23may07.html
60. Nela, Dili, East Timor, 2 July 2008.
61. The post-CAVR secretariat was established in 2005 following the dissolution of CAVR to disseminate Chega! and to manage the Commission's archives.
62. Lia Kent, Unfulfilled Expectations: Community Views of CAVR's Community Reconciliation Process (Dili: Judicial Systems Monitoring Programme, 2004).
63. Nela, Dili, East Timor, 2 July 2008
64. Yayasan Hak staff member, Dili, East Timor, 15 July 2007.
65. Interestingly, NGOs have also begun to turn their attention to the violence of the pre-Indonesian period. For example, in 2006, Yayasan Hak initiated a campaign centred on the experiences of East Timorese 'comfort women' during the period of Japanese occupation. Personal interview, Yayasan Hak staff member, Dili, East Timor, 15 July 2007.
66. Nela, Dili, East Timor, 2 July 2008.
67. Maleve, Lautem, East Timor, 7 June 2008.
68. This has been a protest against the parliament's repeated postponement of discussion on a proposed 'Institute of Memory' to implement CAVR's and CTF's recommendations and establish a national reparations law. 62 Personal interview, member of the 12 November Committee, Dili, East Timor, 9 July 2009.
69. Kristina, Liquica, East Timor, 28 July 2007.
70. Fiona C. Ross, Raw Life, New Hope: Decency, Housing and Everyday Life in a Post-Apartheid Community (Claremont: UCT Press, 2010), 211.
71. Peter Fitzpatrick and Patricia Tuitt, 'Introduction,' in Critical Beings: Law Nation and the Global Subject, ed. Patricia Tuit and Peter Fitzpatrick (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 11-20.
72. M. Anne Brown, 'Security, Development and the Nation-Building Agenda - East Timor,' Conflict, Security and Development 9(2) (2009): 141-164.