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FLOWERS IN THE WALL Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and Melanesia by David Webster ISBN 978-1-55238-955-3 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. 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Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the wording around open access used by Australian publisher, re.press, and thank them for giving us permission to adapt their wording to our policy http://www.re-press.org 13 Gambling with Truth: Hopes and Challenges for Aceh’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Lia Kent and Rizki Affiat During a recent Sunday drive near Bener Mariah, in Central Aceh, to visit the district’s famous lake, we pass thick mountainous forests where it is said that tigers and elephants still roam. Our friend, a local peace advocate, gestures out of the car window to the sites of several mass graves. “Here is a place where the military threw bodies over the edge of a cliff into the valley below. … Over there is a place where there are many body parts lying, de- composed, in the jungle.” We stop at one site, a dilapidated tourist lookout, and climb the chipped tile steps to the top. There is no memorial to the dead. The terrain below seems treacherous, steep and unforgiving. We ask if families are trying to recover and rebury the bodies of their dead. “It is too difficult,” our friend replies, gesturing below to the trees tangled with vines. “And how would they identify the body parts anyway?” This conversation was a stark reminder of the enduring legacies of several periods of violence and conflict in Aceh. Only ten years after the state-sponsored mass killings of 1965–66 that affected the lives of hun- dreds of thousands of Indonesians, Aceh experienced further violence in the form of a bitter, twenty-nine-year civil conflict between the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, or TNI) and the Free Aceh Move- ment (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM). The conflict, which followed 167 GAM’s 1976 declaration of Acehnese independence, is thought to have claimed the lives of between 15,000 to 30,000 people1; many others were tortured, raped, imprisoned, and displaced from their homes. Yet there has never been a systematic documentation process. These truths reside in the memories and bodies of those who lived through these events, passed on through oral stories to the next generation. Acehnese human rights activists have long lobbied for an official truth commission to establish the extent and nature of human rights violations committed during the conflict. In 2016, it seemed that a significant step forward had been taken. Seven commissioners for Aceh’s locally man- dated Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (Komisi Kebenaran dan Rekonsiliasi, or KKR) were selected by Aceh’s provincial parliament. The commission is expected to begin its work in 2017, but its success, and the support of the government of Indonesia, is by no means certain. In this chapter, we draw on recent interviews in Aceh to highlight what is at stake, and for whom, in the KKR’s truth-seeking and reconciliation process- es, and outline some of the obstacles that lie ahead for the commission’s advocates.2 Background to the KKR Aceh’s KKR has been a long time in the making. Both the Helsinki Mem- orandum of Understanding (MoU) that was negotiated between the Indo- nesian government and GAM in 2005 and the 2006 Law for Governing of Aceh (LoGA) provided for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Aceh as part of a national Indonesian TRC. Yet, the national TRC has been in legal limbo since late 2006 when the constitutional court ruled that the 2004 law under which it was to be established was invalid. A key issue was that the law contained provisions that would allow for “amnesty and hence legal immunity for perpetrators of gross human rights abuses.”3 This setback posed a challenge for Acehnese human rights activists, who debated whether to continue pushing for a national-level commission or to lobby their own provincial government and parliament to establish a local Acehnese TRC by way of qanun (provincial legislation). Although fully aware that the powers of a locally constituted KKR would be more limited than those of a national commission, they were disillusioned after years of lobbying, and believed that, by pushing for a local commission, 168 Lia Kent and Rizki Affiat they might have more chance of success. As one activist put it, “we are gambling now. If we don’t push now [for a provincial TRC] we will be wait- ing for a long time.” Activists believe their lobbying efforts had some influence on the even- tual passing of the qanun KKR by the Acehnese provincial parliament, which took place in 2013, after several delays.4 Further delays then ensued and it was not until 2015 that the parliament formed a small committee to select commissioners. In early 2016, the committee selected twenty-one candidates based on potential applicants’ performance on a test. It then provided these names to the provincial parliament, which selected the fi- nal seven names. Despite concerns that the parliament would politicize the process, human rights activists seem happy with the final selection of commissioners. Most are well-known activists with a long history of in- volvement in various human rights advocacy campaigns. Commissioners were inaugurated into their new roles in October 2016. Mandate and Function of the KKR Like most truth commissions, a key aspect of the KKR’s work will involve “truth-seeking.” To this end the commission is mandated to conduct sys- tematic investigations into the causes and impacts of the conflict, includ- ing the role of state and non-state actors. After gathering information from government organizations and NGOs, and taking statements from victims and their families, the commission will present a final report of its findings to the provincial government, the provincial parliament, and the national government. The KKR also has a mandate to design a reconciliation mechanism incorporating Acehnese adat (custom) dispute-resolution practices. This idea may well be informed by Timor-Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR), which incorporated a similar adat- based reconciliation mechanism into its nationwide community recon- ciliation process (CRP).5 Widely regarded as a factor that contributed to the CAVR’s local legitimacy, the CRP hearings that took place at the suco (village) and aldeia (hamlet) level enabled thousands of Timorese to come together to debate and discuss the conflict, and resolve disputes using familiar methods. Panels comprising CAVR staff and local community leaders adjudicated these hearings, deliberated on cases, and requested 13 | Gambling with Truth 169 that perpetrators repair roads, clean churches, and undertake other acts of community service to atone for their acts. In Aceh, adat-based reconciliation mechanisms are expected to be established at the level of the gampong (village) and mukim (a customary unit that consists of several villages). As in Timor-Leste, these mechanisms will only be permitted to adjudicate cases that do not involve gross human rights violations.6 Acehnese adat-based practices have already been uti- lized as part of the peacebuilding process that took place after the signing of the 2005 MoU.

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