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Transitional Justice in East Timor

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Transitional Justice in East Timor View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Transitional Justice in East Timor - a case study of justice versus reconciliation and its consequences Ida Maria Solaas Master’s Thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies The Department of Political Science The Faculty of Social Sciences UNIVERSITETET I OSLO July 2009 Preface The subjects of peace, war and atrocities have long captured my interest. Transitional justice is an intriguing topic, as it attempts to both heal the consequences of war and atrocities, and to build peace. Using experiences and literature from many different cases and scholarly areas, it tries to find the optimal way of addressing past atrocities, and prevent them from happening again. In a world where conflict and human rights abuses still continue to occur this topic is highly relevant, and we should still ask ourselves, what really is the optimal way of addressing past conflict and atrocities? My interest in the tiny state of East Timor was awakened during trips to Australia where I learned of the controversial history with its little neighbour. I would like to thank Dave Burns for tirelessly talking about this topic and inspiring me to write about it. I am further also grateful for the guidance and recommendations from my supervisors, Olle Törnquist and Silje S. Vevatne. Many thanks also go to Silje Rivelsrud and Christine Pålsrud for comments and advice, and Maren D. Lauten for counsel from a historical perspective. Furthermore, I am incredibly grateful for all the support from my family and friends throughout this process. Most of all, my deepest thanks go to my Lloyd for all your love and support. Ida Maria Solaas Krokstadelva, July 2009. ~ 2 ~ Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Research questions........................................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Methodological and analytical framework ................................................................................... 7 1. 3 Sources and Literature ............................................................................................................... 10 1. 4 Structure of thesis ...................................................................................................................... 12 2. Background ....................................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Human rights violations in East Timor......................................................................................... 14 2.2 Transitional justice – three approaches ...................................................................................... 18 3. What factors explain why the process of transitional justice has become more reconciliatory than judicially focused? ........................................................................................................................ 22 3.1 The Indonesian position .............................................................................................................. 22 3.2 The position of the international community ............................................................................. 25 3.3 East Timor - dilemmas of justice and reconciliation ................................................................... 29 3.4 Summary...................................................................................................................................... 38 4. Consequences of judicial measures ................................................................................................. 39 4.1. The Ad Hoc Court in Jakarta ....................................................................................................... 39 4.2 The Serious Crimes Process (SCP) ............................................................................................... 43 4. 3 The utility of justice through trials ............................................................................................. 51 4.3.1 The prospect of achieving a legalist version of justice ......................................................... 51 4.3.2 The impact on lack of prosecution for East Timor ............................................................... 53 4.4 Summary...................................................................................................................................... 59 5. Reconciliatory measures and their outcomes ................................................................................. 60 5.1 Border meetings .......................................................................................................................... 60 5.2 Truth commissions ...................................................................................................................... 62 5.2.1 The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CRTR) ....................................... 63 5.2.2 Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) .......................................................................... 71 5.3 East Timor’s relationship to Indonesia ........................................................................................ 76 5.4 Public attitudes to justice and reconciliation .............................................................................. 78 5.5 Summary...................................................................................................................................... 81 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 84 References ............................................................................................................................................. 90 ~ 3 ~ 1. Introduction Under unlawful Indonesian occupation from 1976 to 1999, East Timor suffered massive human rights abuses. 1 The estimates are uncertain, but somewhere between 102,800 and 200,000 East Timorese are believed to have lost their lives as a consequence, during this 24- year period.2 The external, imposed rule ended in 1999 with a planned scorched earth campaign from the Indonesian military that involved numerous atrocities and cost the lives of over 1,000 East Timorese. A multinational intervention – INTERFET – managed to quell the violence, and the UN took temporarily over administration of the territory. In May 2002, East Timor joined the world society as an independent nation. As any post-conflict society where human rights violations on this scale have been committed, East Timor has gone through, and still is in, a process of transitional justice . Transitional justice can be defined as the “set of practices, mechanisms and concerns that arise following a period of conflict, civil strife or repression, and that are aimed directly at confronting and dealing with past violations of human rights and humanitarian law”. 3 This is a broad definition, which includes both judicial and non-judicial measures – everything from trials and purges, to addressing underlying social and economic issues that produce conflict. This thesis will be focused on the aspects of transitional justice that have been central in the East Timorese-Indonesian context – justice and reconciliation. In line with the extension of democracy and humanitarian values to ever greater areas of the world, the idea that there should be some form of accountability for grave and large scale violations of human rights has been increasing. Intuitively, justice, defined as judicial prosecution is seen as positive and righteous. As gross and widespread atrocities have often occurred in conflict situations, it is also argued that justice must come first, for subsequent 1 East Timor’s official name is Timor-Leste. However, this thesis will utilise the English name. 2 “Chega! The Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation: Timor -Leste: Executive Summary”, The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CRTR), 2005, 44, http://www.etan.org/news/2006/cavr.htm; James Dunn, East Timor: a Rough Passage to Independence, (Double Bay, NSW: Longueville, 2003), 278. 3 The concept of transitional justice is defined with variations in the literature. Some, as Bassiouni, instead use the term post-conflict justice , but this can be problematic, as violence and human rights transgressions can be one-sided state administered upon its own population. The definition used here is from Naomi Roth-Arriaza, “The New Landscape of Transitional Justice”, in Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice , ed. Naomi Roth-Arriaza and Javier Mariezcurrena, 2, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).; M. Cherif Bassiouni, “Introduction”, in Post Conflict Justice , ed, M. Cherif Bassiouni, xv, (New York: Transnational Publishers, 2002). ~ 4 ~ peace to be genuine and lasting. At the same time, there has also been growing apprehension that a rigid pursuit of accountability can be problematic. There can be practical, political or other challenges that limit the form and extent of accountability. Insistence
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