History professor, Bishop's University, Quebec, Canada
By Jess Agustin From Flowers in the Wall: Click here to read the book chapter Surreal is the word that I always use when I describe my experiences in East Timor. It is a tiny country, a tiny territory, but it has everything, both the negative and the positive. It is surreal in the sense… More Reconciliation, Church, and Peacebuilding
By Laurentina “mica” Barreto Soares State-building and development is a continuous process. Timor-Leste has been engaged in this endeavour since the restoration of its independence in 2002, following a period in which the United Nations helped lay the groundwork for institutional development from 1999 to 2002. Many have acknowledged Timorese development is a difficult process,… More Development and Foreign Aid in Timor-Leste after Independence
By Jacqueline Aquino Siapno Excerpted from Flowers in the Wall This chapter explores the paradox of being asked to examine “the truth” when the methods used during the clandestine period were to have no history of records (i.e., leave no trace behind)—a negation of the work of historians and historiography (while keeping in mind the… More “Politika Taka Malu,” Censorship, and Silencing: Virtuosos of Clandestinity in Timor-Leste
Truth commissions have often been studied through the lens of the most famous commission, South Africa’s TRC, which formed after the end of apartheid in 1994. In this and other scholarly accounts, truth commissions are often found at best to be partially successful, and at worst fatally flawed. Sarah Zwierzchowski’s chapter for Flowers in the… More Incomplete Truth, Incomplete Reconciliation: Towards a Scholarly Verdict on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
The latest version of this textbook on truth commissions, written by Bishop’s University students, is now published. Students write Wikipedia articles for their course work and the articles are then published in book form. This project is possible thanks to the Wiki Educational Foundation. Wiki Edu wrote about the previous edition in 2018: Wikipedia is… More Truth and Reconciliation in 28 Countries – latest edition of student-authored textbook
Vérité et Réconciliation en Asie du Sud-Est: quelles leçons pour le Canada ? Un monument à la mémoire des victimes de la guerre du Timor-Leste. Le Canada a beaucoup à apprendre de deux Commissions de vérité et réconciliation (CVR) qui se sont tenues en Asie, et non seulement des leçons à enseigner aux autres. Auteur… More Vérité et Réconciliation en Asie du Sud-Est: quelles leçons pour le Canada ?
A new web site, History Beyond Borders, is starting to share digitized newsletters from East Timor solidarity groups published during the Indonesian occupation (1999-75) and after. It runs off Access to memory (AtoM), a comprehensive archival documents software hosted in Canada and compliant with International Council of Archives standards. A preliminary version with some materials… More Digitized newsletters of the East Timor solidarity movement
The right to food; the right to health. Images of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as it gets ready to turn 70. Centro Nacional Chega, the Timor-Leste centre for truth & reconciliation, Dili, Timor-Leste. pic.twitter.com/sYhjUeKHBE — David Webster (@dwebsterbu) October 30, 2018 Instead of mega-monuments glorifying the past, a photo exhibit explains a complex… More Memorializing Dili, Timor-Leste
Reviewed by Jacqueline Siapno Alue Rambe, a rural village in Aceh, situated at the epicenter of one of the world’s richest oil and gas fields, is the setting of Blood Moon over Aceh. This elegant, nuanced translation of a beautifully written, insightful, powerful novel on a bone-chilling topic forces the reader to reflect on the lives of Acehnese… More Blood Moon over Aceh
In 2005, the Timor-Leste Commission on Truth, Reception and Reconciliation issued its report, Chega! (Enough!). It listed dozens of recommendations to the Timorese government and Timorese society, many of which are in the process of being carried out. There were also ten recommendations to the international community, which addressed research, dissemination of information, and actions… More Unfinished business: Timor-Leste truth commission recommendations to the international community
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