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After the Truth Commission: Gender and Citizenship in Timor-Leste

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Abstract

This article explores the relationship between truth commissions and gendered citizenship through a case study of Timor-Leste. It examines how, 10 years after the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) has completed its work, women’s citizenship remains constrained by, and negotiated within, deeply gendered narratives of nation-building that are informed by historical experiences of the resistance struggle. The power of these narratives—which foreground heroism rather than victimisation—underscores the need to situate truth commissions as part of an ongoing politics of memory. Despite the power of political elites to shape this politics, the continued marginalisation of sections of society within official narratives is also providing an impetus for alternative truth-telling efforts that seek to broaden public perspectives on the past. By promoting new narratives of women’s experiences of the conflict, these projects might be understood as attempts to negotiate and transform gendered conceptions of citizenship in the present and for the future.

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Notes

  1. This research was funded by ARC DP 140102388. Fieldwork was conducted in Timor-Leste in July 2014. The ethical aspects of this study were approved by the ANU Human Research Ethics committee on May 19, 2014.

  2. The narrative of reconciliation promotes both ‘external’ reconciliation with Indonesia and ‘internal’ East Timorese reconciliation. External reconciliation is embodied in the bilateral Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF), which was established by the East Timorese and Indonesian governments in 2006 with the aim of contributing to a ‘definitive closure’ of the issues of the past with a view to fostering relations between the two countries. Internal reconciliation is promoted through the periodic granting of amnesties for convicted East Timorese serious crimes perpetrators. There is also a tacit agreement amongst political leaders not to bring to light issue relating to an internal political conflict that took place between FRETILIN and UDT just prior to the Indonesian invasion, and which led to the loss of hundreds of lives. The narrative of internal reconciliation was also evident in the efforts of former Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to bring pro-integration (with Indonesia) supporters into his government and cabinet, which led to some resentment that they were undeservedly reaping the benefits of independence.

  3. It is proposed that this Institute would also implement agreed recommendations of the CTF. Amongst other things, it would establish a human rights documentation centre and promote the search for missing persons.

  4. The resistance struggle is commonly thought of as being divided into three ‘fronts’: an armed front, a clandestine front and a diplomatic front.

  5. These statements also reference Australia’s role in negotiations over disputed claims for oil and gas in the Timor Sea.

  6. An international tribunal was proposed but support quickly faded in the light of the great expense of the international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the desire of many western states to build partnerships with Indonesia in the so-called war against terror

  7. Clandestine activities were often only possible by concealing one’s activities behind study or work, or using one’s position within the Indonesian government, police or military, to pass on intelligence to the Resistance, which makes it difficult to (see Kent and Kinsella 2014, p. 10).

  8. This perpetuates a public/private divide in which women are principally viewed as ‘belonging’ to men.

  9. See Timor-Leste budget transparency portal, http://budgettransparency.gov.tl/public/index?&lang=en.

  10. Debates amongst the political elite about the ownership of the resistance narrative have been prominent since the referendum. Some of these debates hark back to unresolved issues from an internal political conflict that took part in 1975 between the two key political parties at that time, FRETILIN and UDT. Others invoke disagreements over decisions about resistance strategy that were taken in the 1970s and 1980s, including the steps taken by Xanana Gusmao to decouple of the resistance struggle from its exclusive link to FRETILIN. Given Gusmao’s close historical ties to FALINTIL, the current emphasis within the heroic narrative on the armed component of the struggle suggests that ‘Xanana’s men’ are being rewarded and that Gusmao’s version of this narrative has prevailed.

  11. Interview with ACbit staff member, July 18, 2014.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Interview with Nuno Rodrigues Tchailoro, Dili, Timor-Leste, July 15, 2014

  14. Interview with staff member Women’s History Elaboration Project, Dili, Timor-Leste, July 14, 2014

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  1. State, Society and Governance in Melanesia program, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Lia Kent

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Kent, L. After the Truth Commission: Gender and Citizenship in Timor-Leste. Hum Rights Rev 17, 51–70 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0390-2

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