Church based aid agencies and human rights organisations demand publication of the final report of East Timor’s Truth Commission
Aachen/Berlin, December 02, 2005
Press Release by MISEREOR, missio, German Commission for Justice and Peace and Watch Indonesia!
MISEREOR, missio, the German Commission for Justice and Peace as well as the human rights organisation „Watch Indonesia!” appeal to East Timor’s parliament to disseminate the Truth Commission’s report and its recommendations and to ensure that the people of East Timor, especially the victims and their families, are informed of its contents. „The German government, which supported the work of the commission financially, should act to ensure publication immediately”, says Franz Pils of MISEREOR.
At the same time, the organisations congratulate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to its work and the finalisation of the comprehensive report. „For the first time, there is an official record of the human rights violations perpetrated in East Timor – but its publication is now endangered”, says Otmar Oehring of missio.
In his speech on November 28, 2005, to Parliament on the occasion of handing over the 2,500 page report, President Xanana Gusmão disapproved of the Truth Commission’s recommendations and spoke out against publication of the report for the time being. An „immediate” release is, however, stipulated in law.
Additionally, the President spoke out against the recommendation that Western governments which had condoned Indonesia’s occupation and supplied it with weapons pay redress to victims. Also, the option of reopening the prosecutions was rejected by the President. „President Gusmão’s speech sidelines the Commission and deprives it of its political support”, Monika Schlicher of „Watch Indonesia!” states.
East Timor’s Truth Commission was mandated to investigate the human rights violations perpetrated between April 1974 and in October 1999, to conduct reconciliation processes for minor crimes and to submit a final report with recommendations. The Commission was widely accepted among the East Timorese. It heard testimonies from over 7,500 victims, witnesses and perpetrators and conducted over 1,400 community reconciliation processes. It had planned to disseminate the final report and the recommendations to the people in a nation-wide campaign and to explain what measures should follow to bring about justice, reconciliation and national peace.
„Should East Timor’s parliament follow the President’s lead, all hopes vested in the Commission especially by victims and their families will be destroyed. If the truth about injustice and violence does not yield any consequences, the perpetrators are strengthened and the victims left paralysed and wounded”, Daniel Bogner from the German Commission Justice and Peace summarizes the effect of the President’s stand.
Recommended reading:
Monika Schlicher: East Timor faces up its Past: The Work of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, Missio Human Rights No. 25, Aachen 2005. Available at our homepage (PDF, 443 kB)
The original German version:
Monika Schlicher: Osttimor stellt sich seiner Vergangenheit:Die Arbeit der Empfangs-, Wahrheits- und Versöhnungskommission, Missio-Menschenrechte Nr. 25, Aachen 2005 (PDF, 297 kB)German Commission for Justice and Peace: Memory, Truth, Justice: Recommendations on Dealing with Burdened Past, A Handout, No. 102e, Bonn, September 2004, for a hardcopy please contact Ingrid Bellinghausen: i.bellinghausen@dbk.de
Watch Indonesia!, Planufer 92d, 10967 Berlin, Germany Phone: +49-30-69817938, Fax: +49-30-69817938
e-mail: watchindonesia@watchindonesia.org, homepage: https://www.watchindonesia.deGerman Commission for Justice and Peace, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany Phone: +49-228-103217, Fax: +49-228-103318
e-mail: Justitia-et-Pax-Deutschland@dbk.de, homepage: http://www.justitia-et-pax.deMisereor, Mozartstraße 9, 52064 Aachen, Germany Phone: +49-241-442-424, Fax: +49-241-442-188
homepage: http://www.misereor.demissio, Human Rights Office, Goethestraße 42, 52064 Aachen, Germany Phone: +49-241-7507-253, Fax: +49-241-7507-61-253e-mail: humanrights@missio-aachen.de, homepage: http://www.missio.de
