The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (more commonly known by its
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
acronym CAVR: Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor Leste) was an independent
truth commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
established in
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
in 2001 under the
UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and charged to “inquire into human rights violations committed on all sides, between April 1974 and October 1999, and facilitate community reconciliation with justice for those who committed less serious offenses.” The idea of a truth commission in East Timor was first agreed by the
National Council of Timorese Resistance in 2000.
The Commission had a triple mandate as reflected in its name, to address:
(1) reception (acolhimento), the return of Timorese displaced into Indonesian West Timor and their reintegration into their communities, which the Commission described as "people embracing each other as East Timorese, of coming back to our selves, living under one roof, after many years of division and violence";
(2) truth seeking, rendering a full accounting of human rights violations between 1974 and 1999 (the end of the period of Indonesian rule), primarily though the collection of 7,669 statements; and
(3) reconciliation, conducted through a "novel and previously untested programme" called the Community Reconciliation Process, designed to reintegrate low-level offenders into their community.
The commissioners, all Timorese nationals, were:
*
Aniceto Guterres Lopes
Aniceto Guterres Lopes (born April 16, 1967 in Tapo, East Timor) is an East Timorese politician and human rights lawyer.
Early life
On December 7, 1975, Lopes and his family fled the country to Builalu, Indonesia to escape from the Indonesian ...
, from the human rights group "Yayasan Hak"
*Jacinto Alves
*Maria Olandina Isabel Caeiro Alves, chair of "Women against violence"
*Isabel Amaral Guterres
*Father Jovito Araujo, a Catholic priest and former member of the resistance group OJETIL (Organização de Jovens e Estudantes de Timor Leste)
*Jose Estevao Soares
*Agustino de Vasconcelos, a minister in the East Timor Protestant Church (GKTT)
CAVR was housed in the Comarca, a former Portuguese and Indonesian prison, which today houses the
Centro Nacional Chega!, the CAVR archive, and a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
open to the public.
During its work, over 10,000 statements were taken from victims and perpetrators, and public hearings were held which were broadcast on tv and radio. The Commission delivered its 2,500-page report entitled ''Chega!'' meaning "stop" or "enough" in Portuguese, covering human rights violations from 1974 to 1999, to the
President of East Timor
The president of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste ( pt, Presidente da República Democrática de Timor-Leste; tet, Prezidente Republika Demokratika Timor-Leste) is the head of state of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. The executiv ...
on 31 October 2005. The President then handed the report to the
Secretary General of the UN as required by law, on 20 January 2006.
''Chega!'' found that East Timor had suffered massive human rights violations, including violations of the right to self-determination, killings and disappearances, forced displacement and famine, detention and torture, violations of the laws of war, political trials, sexual violence, violations of the rights of the child, and violations of economic and social rights. It determined that the death toll during Indonesian rule had been between a low limit of 102,800 and may have been as high as 183,000. It also concluded that the majority of deaths had been the result of actions by the Indonesian army, and that violence in 1999 was the result of a "systematic campaign orchestrated at the highest levels of the Indonesian government." The findings of Chega were affirmed in 2008 by the
Indonesia–Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship
The Indonesia–Timor Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship (more commonly known by its Portuguese acronym CVA, ''Comissão Verdade e Amizade'') was a truth commission established jointly by the governments of Indonesia and East Timor in Augus ...
.
The Chega! report was published in Indonesian and subsequently in English translation by
Kompas Gramedia Group
Kompas Gramedia is an Indonesian conglomerate. It has focused on several businesses, predominantly mass media, as well as hospitality, manufacturing, and event organizing.
The company's businesses comprises multiple divisions, such as media ass ...
. It consists of five volumes:
*Vol 1: CAVR’s work and mandate; history of the conflict; analysis of the occupying power and the resistance; profile of human rights violations 1974-1999.
*Vol 2: Human rights violations: self-determination; unlawful killings and
forced disappearance
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
s; forced displacement and famine.
*Vol 3: Human rights violations (cont.): arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment; violations of the laws of war; political trials; rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence; violations of the rights of the child; economic and social rights.
*Vol 4: Findings on responsibility and accountability; the community reconciliation process; victim support; recommendations.
*Vol 5: Appendices on: crimes against humanity in 1999, data and statistical methods, indictments by the Serious Crimes Unit, and acknowledgements (including donors); glossary; index.
Follow-up
The Chega! Report was never debated in parliament, although the government of Timor-Leste says it implemented the majority of the report’s recommendations.
Follow-up work on education, archives, memorialization, advocacy, victim support and other aspects are carried out by the Centro Nacional Chega!, established in 2016 by then prime minister
Rui María de Araújo.
Several non-governmental organizations are also active in pushing for full implementation of the Chega! Recommendations, including the Chega for Us Association (ACBIT) and
Asia Justice and Rights
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
(AJAR).
References
External links
*http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20060902001907/http://www.hrdag.org/about/timor-leste.shtml
*http://www.etan.org/news/2006/cavr.htm
*Ann Harrison
Coders Bare Invasion Death Count- Wired News, 2006-02-09
- West Papua New Guinea National Congress, 2006-01-31
*http://www.chegareport.net/
{{Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Truth and reconciliation commissions
History of East Timor
United Nations operations in East Timor
2001 establishments in East Timor
Truth and reconciliation reports