Timor Leste Truth Commission starts work

Timor Leste Truth Commission starts work

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post/Denpasar

The ten-member Commission of Truth and Friendship began its task
of trying to mend, without rendering any punishment, the wounds
afflicted by pro-Indonesian militias in the bloody aftermath of
Timor Leste's independence referendum in 1999.

On Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and
his Timor Leste counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta led the commission's
inaugural meeting in Bali.

Hassan said that the commission should seek out the truth to
clarify who was involved in the "dark chapter of the history of
the two countries".

However, he made clear that the commission's findings and
recommendations would not be used as a basis for judicial
prosecutions.

"This process will not lead to punishment for those held
accountable, but will lead to reconciliation," he told a press
conference following the closed-door meeting.

The commission, which has five members each from the two
countries, was established to investigate the ensuing chaos
following the referendum that ended Indonesia's 24-year rule of
the former Portuguese colony. The United Nations have alleged
that the atrocities, which claimed up to 1,500 lives, were
carried out by militia gangs trained and sponsored by the
Indonesian military.

Ramos-Horta concurred with Wirayuda's view that
reconciliation, and not retribution, was best for the future
relations of the two countries.

"Between the government, the leaders of the two countries, the
people, we have reconciled, we have to come forward, step forward
in this relationship," he said. "We look at justice as not only
being the prosecutorial system," he said.

However, he admitted that there was debate in his country as
to whether the commission was appropriate.

Earlier in the week, Timor Leste's Catholic Church bishops
said that justice could only be found in the form of a United
Nations-sponsored international tribunal.

Of the 18 men tried here for the 1999 atrocities in an
Indonesian ad hoc human rights court, 17 have been acquitted. The
18th man, militia leader Eurico Guterres and a member of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's security wing, remains
free pending the results of his appeal.

Those results prompted the UN to call for retrials within six
months or face the possibility of an international tribunal.

However, the two countries have expressed opposition to the UN
recommendation, saying it would harm relations between the two
nations and so they say they prefer the joint commission.

The commission has a one-year mandate, renewable for a maximum
of another year, to carry out its investigations. The
commission's terms of reference specify that it has the power to
access all available documents, to interview all related parties
and to possibly grant amnesty to those held responsible for the
violations.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Timor Leste president
Xanana Gusmao are scheduled to meet in Denpasar next week and to
officially open the commission's Bali secretariat.