Faith, Hope and Justice

November 19, 2009

By Steve Holland

Sheiner says the ramifications of the lack of justice are evident in the country’s recent history and believes a crisis that emerged in 2006 resulted from a culture of lawlessness.

‘I think it’s very clear. In 2006, there was what everyone here calls “The Crisis”…There were conflicts between the police and military, there were 37 killings before the Australian military came in here and another almost 200 afterwards, which nobody seems to want to remember,’ Sheiner says.

He says many in Timor-Leste don’t have an understanding of justice, or confidence in the country’s justice system, because they haven’t seen it implemented and enforced by authorities.

‘The result of that lack of confidence is that people feel that they can commit crimes with impunity and that people who are victims of crimes feel that they are not going to get justice through the established systems so they have to do it themselves.

‘And this is what people in Suai say now. If you talk to the people in Suai now, they say “the next time a militia leader comes across the border we’re going to kill him…We’re not going to wait for the police and courts to do their process because they are not going to do it,”’ Sheiner says.

‘And that’s not encouraging to those of us who would hope this country can evolve into a peaceful democracy.’

On August 30, East Timor commemorated the 10th anniversary of its independence vote. At least 100,000 people died from fighting, hunger and illness–in excess of what would normally be expected in peacetime–during Indonesia’s 25-year rule.

The former Portuguese colony is still learning to stand on its own feet. But although it relies heavily on international aid, with its vast oil and gas reserves, the half island nation–one of the world’s poorest–has the potential to become prosperous.

Yet the country’s politicians, many of whom are former guerrilla fighters, seem unable to forget the ways of the jungle and demonstrate a respect and understanding for the democratic values they swore to uphold.

A vote of no confidence was tabled in parliament against Prime Minister Gusmao following his hand in Bere’s release, but the Fretilin Opposition’s motion was defeated.

Timor-Leste MP Fernanda Borges served as Fretilin’s finance minister when the party was last in government. She quit the party, believing there was corruption within the administration.

Although she is no longer directly aligned to Fretilin, she backed its push for a no-confidence vote. Borges now leads her own party, the National Unity Party or PUN, and often spends her time away from work driving to rural areas to try and keep in touch with the people.

‘The people have the desire for it [justice], and they aren’t at peace because they haven’t got it,’ she said. ‘It [the Maternus Bere case] has brought a sense of fear in the people that they can’t trust the security sector or the judiciary because it’s tainted by political decisions.’

Borges believes there’s more behind the desire of Timor-Leste’s leaders to see accused war criminals escape justice than just the supposed desire for forgiveness.

‘I think our political leaders are more concerned about themselves, their personal dilemmas, because they were involved in the resistance. I have to ask them, and I have been asking: what is it that you are afraid of?

‘Because unless there’s something you’re afraid of yourselves, justice for crimes against humanity is something that every human being would want, particularly those that fought this war, that claim to have fought this war,’ she says.

There’s a reluctance to speak of the town’s brutal history, and perhaps the politicians who say it’s time to forget the past and move on are right when they claim to act on behalf of the people.

Yet Timor-Leste is a land of divisions and contradictions, and the actions of the young man who beat Bere when he returned to Suai tell another story. Bere has not been forgotten by everyone, and for some victims justice might be necessary for closure. For Manuel and others, though, the wait for such justice continues.