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Thursday : Session E :
East Timor
Susan Harris Rimmer
Vanishing Choices: East Timorese Women and Transitional Justice
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is commencing operation
and will
build on the jurisprudence of the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the
Former
Yugoslavia. There are also several credible models of Truth and
Reconciliation Tribunals, such as South Africa, Chile and Argentina.
International law and practice has developed to the point where the newly
elected East Timorese government should be able to make some choices.
Should they push forward with the Commission for Reception, Truth and
Reconciliation? Is this commensurate with the push by East Timorese
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for an International Criminal
Tribunal? Are both hollow gestures without sufficient political support
from the Indonesian Government for its own Ad Hoc Human Rights Court?
Is it
time for a new hybrid of "internationalised" criminal proceedings?
Exploration of those three choices should aid in unpacking the following
issues. What are the tensions between domestic reconciliation and
international justice in the East Timorese context? What are the
implications of the choices for the rebuilding of the rule of law? What
will be the ramifications of these choices for the women of East Timor?
Susan Harris Rimmer
Anita Roberts
The two-track transitional justice model in Timor-Leste
This paper will cover the inter-relationship of the Special Panels
and the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor Leste,
as an example of the two-track transitional justice model. The two-track
model establishes complementary prosecutorial and non-prosecutorial transitional
justice mechanisms, through the institutions of the Special Panel of the
Dili District Court and the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.
The focus of this paper is Timor Leste. However, comparison will be made
with the two-track model currently used in Sierra Leone. The paper will
hopefully ultimately provide a snapshot of this new and innovative two-track
transitional justice initiative.
A study of the inter-relationship of the Special Panels and CAVR will necessarily highlight the degree of integration between the two institutions. The nature of the integration between the two institutions will determine the success of the two-track model. Success, that is, in terms of whether the two-track system lays a framework for justice in Timor Leste that will perpetuate the movement towards reconciliation and accountability.
Issues covered will include the legal relationship between the Special
Panels and CAVR and the practical implications arising from this, information
and resource sharing, and potential for institution strengthening and
capacity building.
Anita Roberts
Michael Morison
Democratisation and Capacity Building: An Uncomfortable Alliance in the
East Timor national Elections 2001-2002
In 2001 I co-ordinated a UN Civic Education (Political/ Constitutional
and Human Rights Education) program in the border district of Cova Lima
in East Timor in the lead-up to the August 30 election. As a political
scientist and lawyer, doing so provided me with a unique opportunity to
experience a United Nations democratisation and peacekeeping mission both
at a local and national level.
Our project sought to train and employ a group of young university educated
Timorese women and men to teach 50,000 local villagers about the constitutional
and political transition underway in their country.
At village level this project, and many like it co-ordinated by the UN,
succeeded in emphasising the role of all Timorese people in the democratisation
process.
Yet at a national level many decisions made by the broader UN administration
undermined the work done at village level to enhance the skills and abilities
of the Timorese people to manage their own affairs.
For example the eleventh hour decision by the transitional administration to create a "government of national unity", meaning that the composition of the National Assembly would not necessarily be determined solely by the outcome of the election but by pragmatic factors influenced by political sensitivities on the ground, resulted in very few young and capable Timorese women and men being incorporated into positions of power.
The early decision to make the US dollar the national currency served
only to widen the inequalities between international workers and local
people, and to artificially inflate the economy. In any event the Indonesian
rupiah still remains the most widely used currency, particularly in rural
areas.
The decision, seemingly ideologically motivated, to make Portuguese the
national language served only to reinforce the strong belief, especially
amongst the young, that the international community aimed to reinstall
a foreign elite which had abandoned them in their time of greatest need.
If much of the good work of the international community in East Timor
begins to unravel it will in part be due to these and other decisions.
Civic educators, human rights workers, electoral and development workers,
and for that matter all of those involved in post-conflict capacity building
initiatives can learn a great deal from the experience of the international
community in East Timor.
To serve the interests of true self-determination, democratisation must
aim towards a "ground up" approach. This means genuine capacity
building by supporting civil society groups from the local level up, as
opposed to the imposition of government from the top down.
Michael Morison
Jefferson Lee
Reconstructing East Timor : Problems, Pitfalls and Possibilities
for Community and Solidarity Activists in Australia.
A recent article in the special East Timor edition of Inside Indonesia
Magazine (71/2002) addressed the dilemma that East Timor faced at a macro
level. It was headed 'Born in the wrong era: Amidst globalisation, can
East Timor still be a people's alternative?' It contrasted Timor's "socialistic"
Constitution and its ratification of progressive social Conventions under
the UN with its growing embedded status with the World Bank and the inevitability
of free market economics and national debt. NGO worker Mansour Fakih argued,
"We need a new global solidarity movement to rescue the baby! Otherwise
the people will soon be disappointed as the real economic policy becomes
clear to them."
The central argument in this paper is that the Post-Referendum/Post-Independence
period of Australian-East Timor Relations has created endless opportunities
for involvement by community and solidarity activists to become involved
in assisting the reconstruction of East Timor in the new millennium at
the micro level. At the same time many of those who have been involved
for any length of time feel a sense of frustration at the slow progress
on the ground inside East Timor. Is it simply a case of we expect too
much? Is it just a case of inadequate resources? Is it a case of Australians
not fully understanding the Timorese people, their aspirations or simply
their right to do things their own way? Or is the real problem here in
Australia where good intentions and initiatives often flounder because
of the shortcomings our own political system or indeed our own personalities.
This paper will offer a fragmentary overview of ongoing dilemmas from
a personal perspective by a long term activist . In doing so I hope to
touch on some common threads. My methodology is essentially anecdotal.
What I hope to do is to slip between the covers of the macro (broad picture)
and the micro (community/individual) level in my analysis of contemporary
practice regarding Australia's engagement with East Timor.
Jefferson Lee is
currently the Special Projects Officer of the Australia-East Timor Association
(NSW). He has worked in a voluntary capacity for East Timor for well over
a decade. He was a guest of East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta
in Dili in August-September 2001 to observe the first National Elections.
Mr Lee has taught Politics, International Relations and Journalism/Media
Studies at UNSW, Deakin and UWS Universities and at the WEA. He is the
author of course guides used at Deakin University in international journalism
and international relations and has written a research paper for Edith
Cowan University's 'Reporting Asia' series. His main research area is
the Australian Media and Asia. He has co-authored books on East Timor
and Cambodia published in Bangkok, Manila and Otford, NSW.
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