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Meera Atkinson  East Timor is a new democracy and one of the poorest and smallest of the world’s nations. It's had to establish a new government, rebuild its economy and begin the process of healing its society, following 24 years of occupation and trauma.
Dr Helen Hill, senior lecturer in International Community Development at Victoria University, is also a member of the Uniting Church. She has been closely involved with Timor’s struggle for over 30 years. In 1974 Helen went to Timor while writing her Masters thesis on what she thought would be its transition to independence. When Indonesia invaded she abandoned her thesis and went to New York with José Ramos-Horta to help set up his office there. She did not visit Timor again till 2000. However, she remained involved with the Timor-Leste movement for self-determination via the Australia East Timor Association solidarity movement and the Timorese diaspora around the world. After returning to Timor Helen began writing a book on the transition to independence, which she is still working on. Helen says the need for a process of reconciliation became evident after the 1999 post-ballot violence. “The Timorese struggle was quite different to that of many other places,” explains Helen. “When Xanana Gusmão, now Prime Minister, was resistance leader, he used to say the Timorese were not enemies of the Indonesian people, that it was just the Indonesian army and certain generals, so the Timorese adopted a good attitude and never blamed the Indonesian people. “When the ballot took place on 30 August 1999 the Indonesians had so much belief they would win that they got extremely angry. The violence was actually planned by the Indonesian army to wreck the place if they lost the ballot.”  Following the elections, Timor set up the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Expensive hearings were held for a couple of years, evidence was gathered about human rights violations and those who had perpetrated those crimes. The resulting report documents the rapes, killings and violence that took place.
And then things got complicated. Just as the reporting process was nearing its completion, Xanana Gusmão was invited to Indonesia where the alternative Truth and Friendship Commission was established as a joint venture. “The purpose of this commission was not to hold anyone accountable for violations of human rights; it was to undermine the impact of the CAVR,” says Helen. “Sadly when the CAVR report was released, Xanana refused to take it to parliament, didn’t want anyone to read it and didn’t send it to the United Nations. People got quite angry. Part of the problem is that Xanana Gusmão has a different concept of reconciliation than does the Catholic Church.” As a Portuguese colony East Timor is 90% Catholic. The Roman Catholic Bishop during the last few years of occupation promoted a model of reconciliation common in the Catholic Church: truth seeking and confession followed by accountability, forgiveness and atonement. Helen says Gusmao required the Timorese people to forgive without hearing either confession or accountability. “Only one person was imprisoned after the violence of 1999 and that was a Timorese,” she says. None of the main architects of the occupation and perpetrators of violence have been brought to justice and Helen thinks it unlikely they will be in this generation. “That’s making the Timorese hostile toward Indonesia as a whole which is going against Xanana’s original position. The problem is that there are too many people in the Indonesian army who were responsible that still hold responsible positions.” Expecting the Timorese to forgive so readily and without acknowledgement of the harm done is a big ask — they have a great deal to forgive. “They didn’t only kill people; they also stole a lot mineral wealth, chopped down all the forests, totally transformed the agriculture, so there’s been a lot of environmental destruction as well,” says Helen. “Many women were raped and lost husbands and sons. They find it difficult to forgive and forget as Xanana is urging them to do. It’s holding back development of the country because they can’t get on with development until people feel motivated and secure.” Helen maintains that the CAVR was not entirely unsuccessful and that even if it failed to bring about reconciliation between Indonesia and Timor it did facilitate internal reconciliation. “People who took the side of the Indonesians have been reconciled with their villages and have been able to go back home.” The release of The Truth and Friendship Commission’s report has been delayed due to the assassination attempt on José Ramos-Horta but will soon come to light. “But everybody expects it not to say very much and not to push forward any true reconciliation agenda,” says Helen. In the meantime, the Australian government, individuals and churches may assist the healing of Timor (The Uniting Church offers support to its partner church, the Timorese Protestant Church).
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