By Lia Kent and Rizki Affiat During a recent Sunday drive near Bener Mariah, in Central Aceh, to visit the district’s famous lake, we pass thick mountainous forests where it is said that tigers and elephants still roam. Our friend, a local peace advocate, gestures out of the car window to the sites of several… More Peace, truth & reconciliation in Aceh
By Pat Walsh This post excerpts a portion of “Shining Chega’s Lights in the Cracks,” published in the book Flowers in the Wall (University of Calgary Press, 2018). Since 2009, when the CTF report, Per Memoriam Ad Spem (Through Memory to Hope), was released, I have argued that it should be embraced because, although it… More Ten years since the Indonesia/ Timor-Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship III: the CTF’s ambiguous legacy
Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), based in Indonesia, is one of the key organizations carrying forward the work of “socializing” truth commission reports and recommendations. Part of a network of groups linked to the International Center for Transitional Justice, it works to disseminate, popularize and push for implementation of truth and reconciliation. Its infographic marking… More Ten years since the Indonesia/ Timor-Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship II: Asia Justice and Rights
In July 2008, the joint Indonesia/Timor-Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship handed in its report. Ten years after, the CTF remains the only bilateral truth commission sponsored by two governments anywhere in the world. To mark ten years of the CTF, we share several retrospective pieces. The first is a research summary produced by Nicholas… More Ten years since the Indonesia/Timor-Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship I: Wikipedia research article
By Pat Walsh Some may feel that ‘growing flowers in a prison’ is counter-intuitive or that the idea of growing delicate flowers in the confines of a concrete box is doomed to failure. The title appealed to me, however, for a few reasons. First, I am on what I call ‘gardening leave’ from Timor-Leste and… More Growing Flowers in a Prison: Timor-Leste’s new hub of post-conflict best practice
Flowers in the Wall: Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and Melanesia is now available for free Open Access download, thanks to University of Calgary Press. Click to access downloadable pdf version What is the experience of truth and reconciliation? What is the purpose of a truth commission? What lessons can be learned from established truth and… More Now in Open Access: Flowers in the Wall
“When journalism is silent, literature must speak,” in the words of Indonesian writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma, whose reporting on the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in Timor-Leste (East Timor) broke the silence about the killings in Indonesia. As Indonesian military elites try to downplay discussion of the massacres that engulfed their country, in 1965, a powerful… More General! A poem of solidarity from Timor-Leste for victims of the 1965 tragedy in Indonesia
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