JSMP Resources

PRESIDENTE DA REPÚBLICA

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT KAY RALA XANANA GUSMÃO

at The inauguration of the newly rehabilitated former Balide Prison as the
National Office of the CAVR

and

The opening of the National Public Hearing on Political Imprisonment

Dili , 17 February 2003

Prime Minister,

Special Representative of the Secretary-General,

Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps,

Bishop D. Basílio do Nascimento,

Representatives of International Agencies,

President of the CAVR,

Distinguished Commissioners - National and District,

Representatives from NGOs,

Brothers and Sisters representing victims,

Fellow countrymen,

As everyone knows, CAVR started work on 21 January 2002 when the National
Commissioners were sworn in. Since then CAVR has focussed its efforts not
only on hearing the truth and facilitating reconciliation but also in the
reception of returnees from West Timor.

Reconciliation has been ongoing, for a long time facilitated by CNRT and
UNTAET. Following the establishment of the CAVR, CNRT and UNTAET slowly
withdrew and focused on other aspects of reconciliation. Since the
Commission started working on reception, truth and reconciliation, all the
people in the country know about its activities which are rooted in the
mountains and villages. Thanks to all the members of the Commission and
the assistance of the international staff we now have a process established
throughout the territory to seek for the truth and to facilitate national
reconciliation.

Today in the inauguration of this building, I would firstly like to thank
the people who have come forward to tell their stories to the Commission.
The Commission belongs to the people - every district has a team from that
district, who facilitate dealing with trauma and healing in their
societies. For this, I want to congratulate the whole community. The people
are doing this themselves - the Commission facilitates - but it is the
community's process and they do it themselves.

I would like to thank the victims who have come forward, and I would also
like to thank those who had harmed their communities for showing the moral
courage to come forward to participate in reconciliation hearings. People
in the villages who have gone through the process say "we are telling our
stories because we know we need to make peace". This proves to the world
the real willingness of the Timorese people to reconcile - that it is the
people in the mountains and sucos that are building peace.

I want to thank the Commissioners who are helping and facilitating the
process in the villages with the people. I would like to congratulate the
7 National Commissioners and the 28 Regional Commissioners, and also the
district and national teams of the Commission for their significant
achievements so far. This is the first time that there is such a
Commission in the whole Asia Region - this shows that Timor-Leste is making
a contribution to development of human rights in the world. The CAVR is an
East Timorese institution - 240 staff have been working- staffed mainly by
East Timorese with a small amount of foreign support - East Timorese
supporting East Timorese to build peace. The CAVR is working in each
district, in all sub-districts and in the villages.

It is encouraging to know that so far 2500 statements have been given by
East Timorese people to record the truth of our history. More than 200
people who have harmed their communities have come forward voluntarily to
participate in reconciliation hearings to make peace with their
communities. I want to encourage those who have harmed their communities to
come forward and those who have suffered to seek to reconcile.

We congratulate the fact that with us here today are a team of human rights
NGO's from West Timor who are now preparing to go into the camps to explain
to the people there how they can also participate in the process of the
CAVR and how the CAVR can help them in some way.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you know this building was formerly a prison for the detention of
political prisoners. It has undergone a transformation to become a human
rights center. The work of the CAVR aims also to facilitate a
transformation from trauma to peace of heart. The CAVR does not only search
for the truth - but seeks to facilitate transformation in the society from
trauma to peace.

I have just walked through the building and saw the amazing evidence of the
spirit of the struggle and suffering of the people. I would like to
congratulate the builders on their work in preserving the graffiti.
Congratulations to Julio Alfaro and his team and workers- himself and many
of them having been formerly detained in this prison.

None of this could happen if it were not for the generosity of the Donor
community. Many donors - United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, European
Commission, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland Ireland and the United States
of America, UNHCR, UNDP - have supported in different ways. Thank you all.

Our special thanks to the Prime Minister of Japan for the donation, during
my visit to Japan in January 2002, of the $1 million for the CAVR - part of
these funds have been used to renovate this building, and regional offices
in five districts.

The donor community made it possible to get this process up and
running. However, we need continued support to complete the work of the
Commission.

The Regulation 2001/10 which created the Truth Commission referred only to
the Transitional Administrator and does not specify to which of the state
institutions the CAVR should report post Independence. I know that people
are thinking that the Commission can only be able to safeguard its
independence if there is a law prescribing that the Commission reports to
the President. We have here the Prime Minister with us. I can confirm
that he has already agreed on this, asking only that the Commission must
also make its report available to the government.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fellow Countrymen,

Allow me a few words about what I believe on reconciliation.

Why the need for reconciliation?

We need to know the truth; We need to remember; We need to come to terms
with and accept; We need to learn from; We need to forgive; We need to heal
and We need to move forward.

Reconciliation compels us to reflect upon the human dimension of pain,
suffering and forgiveness. Sometimes, the pain is so overwhelming that talk
of forgiveness seems like an insult. People who talk to perpetrators of
crimes are seen as not respecting the victims. People who talk about
forgiveness are accused of insulting the victims. We come from a history of
political violence where so many sorrows are still in our memories.

What then should we, East Timorese, do to achieve the healing process, in
the building of our country, in the building of a new society?

It is important to know the truth. It is important to come to terms with
and to accept the truth. It is necessary to learn, so as never to repeat.
It is necessary to forgive and to move forward.

Peace and stability are what our people yearn for most after emerging from
decades of suffering. In order to achieve peace and stability, we need to
be united in the goal of reconciliation.

We advocate a reconciliation process whereby justice is done but which
eschews revenge, resentment and hatred. Reconciliation, in East Timor, is a
complex process requiring the careful balancing of interests. On the one
hand, the interests of justice and the suffering of the victim, on the
other hand the need to heal a land.

But we must combat all the bad behaviour that pushes people to make revenge
on behalf of their suffering. We should not permit that, for example, a
person taking advantage of his/her position as teacher to punish the child
of someone that has hurt him/her before.

We should teach everybody to respect the truth, and the truth is that it
was not the child who committed crime. We must change this mentality and
ask for everybody to bow to justice and not to live under sentiments of
revenge.

There is a need for a collective awareness to seek the truth and demand
justice in the context of reconciliation so that future generations may
live without memories of the horrors of war. We must make all efforts in
this direction, so that our children don't have to point their fingers to
other East Timorese children. I am of the view that reconciliation succeeds
only when East Timorese society stops being haunted by the ghosts of the past.

While we agree with the need for justice, this is also a political process
and not merely a judicial one.

We are now dealing with the crimes committed in September 1999. I know, and
maybe some of you also know, that there are still some wounds in the souls
of many people, like widows, children and relatives, not from the crimes
committed by TNI or militias, but by Timorese political parties.

I have asked the political parties, involved in political violence, to
recognize their mistakes, their misbehaviour, and to apologize to the
people. It is very important to achieve the truth in this matter. While we
all are trying to build a tolerant society, we are just forgetting our own
mistakes, our own crimes.

It is necessary to learn from the past, so as never to repeat. I have
always said to the militias that we need to honour justice, so that no more
political violence can happen in our country. And I can affirm that we need
to see from the political parties a great courage to ask for forgiveness.
If it happens, we can be sure that no political party, in the future, would
try to achieve its goals by using violence. It is very important to the
process and to the future of our country.

Reconciliation is a pre-requisite for national stability, which means
peace. And national stability is a prerequisite for development.

Development, stability, peace. But peace must derive from peace of mind
within each human being, between individuals expressed in the solidarity
between communities, expressed by tolerance within societies.

Peace of mind means that people feel truly free; free from psychological or
political pressure, free from economic pressure or social tension, free
from past trauma, free from the daily shortcomings and free from the fear
of what tomorrow may bring. Currently, many people are not yet free. Our
people are trying to understand the difficulties of the nation building
process, but they need, as an important step, to be free from psychological
pressure and from the past trauma. Many families live with the trauma,
better to say with the permanent suffering of the need to rehabilitate the
names of their beloved.

That is why, peace is the outcome of interaction of behaviours within a
society and peace must be an act of sovereignty by the people. Towards this
noble objective, the reconciliation of spirit and minds gains even greater
importance, because we are still undergoing a post-conflict situation.

A good deal is spoken on the subject of trauma. Nowadays, many people talk
about their suffering, their participation in the struggle and demand
better attention, even compensation such as benefits. With this notion of
trying to take advantage of trauma and suffering, our society is going to
devalue the sacrifices made to free our Homeland.

When we deal with cases of violence in the past, we put more emphasis on
the suffering, not on the meaning of sacrifices, giving to them their due
value. Our people must start understanding that the real demand should be
on social justice, not basically on justice to the perpetrators.

All the sacrifices will only be honoured when we reach an equitable level
of development, based on steadfast determination to eradicate poverty in
our country. It will be meaningless if we have all the perpetrators in
jail, but the people continue to face infant mortality, endemic and
epidemic diseases, without a decent house, without clean water and food.

Without a change of the current poor standard of life, the grief lived in
the past will not be healed and reconciliation will be a lot harder to
achieve. Peace and stability will continue to be a dream for the people of
East Timor.

Therefore, we must start talking about all these aspects. Therefore, at a
political level and, once again, I appeal to the politicians, that there is
a need for a collective awareness on the importance of a National Policy,
whereby state institutions are the first ones to recognize the magnitude of
the process.

We must agree that it is not an easy task. It is why the participation of
civil society takes up great importance. In post-conflict processes,
conflicts are no longer of an armed nature but often breed more or less
generalised violence.

Such conflicts are often grounded on specific interests, which may range
from political to psychological, from economic to social ones.

Too often, state institutions are inoperative because their action is
mostly addressed to solve problems through appeasement. It is up to civil
society to progressively work towards changing mindsets, to change
characters and to change attitudes.

Civil society can take up the role of generating debate and dialogue. But
public debate and public dialogue. Not workshops, where always we see the
same faces in every kind of issues, monopolizing knowledge, monopolizing
feelings, monopolizing perceptions on policies.

Finally, reconciliation is necessary to promote harmony within Timorese
society and guarantee broad participation as the basic condition for social
justice and the improvement of the living standards of the population.

Only then will Independence have real meaning for a people who fought,
suffered and won their right to live in freedom.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to introduce to you two of our best Indonesian
friends, Mr Luhut Pangaribuan, one of the lawyers for Timorese detainees in
Java, and Mrs Ade Rostina Sitompul whose weekly visits to the prisoners
gave them strength to face the difficulties, isolation and suffering and
helped very much in the network with other solidarity groups in Indonesia.
Thank you both and please convey also our thanks to all our Indonesian
friends who helped in the struggle.

I would like to congratulate ASSEPOL - the Association of Former Political
Prisoners - for their involvement and generosity of spirit and commitment
to Human Rights in this country in ensuring that what happened does not
happen again.

I hope that this building, so long steeped in tragedy, can be a living
center to document the history of Timor-Leste for future generations so
that the youth can learn about the past and through that make a commitment
to protect human rights forever.

In this regard, I myself have already requested the UN for all the
documents on reconciliation in order to establish a library in the
Presidency and make available to the people the complete history of our own
process on reconciliation. The truth of our land is the property of each
and every East Timorese.

I know that in your programme for the next two days, some former prisoners
will testify. It is necessary for us to know the truth of what happened, to
remember and to learn from this experience.

As a former prisoner, I must say that I had two great experiences. One
related to myself and another related to the whole process. The first and
very important was the opportunity to gain a better knowledge of the
Indonesian people's struggle for democracy and freedom. This helped me
start to reduce and then to get rid of all the hatred that had accumulated
in my heart in the jungle for 17 years. I came to understand more and more
the common objectives that united us with the Indonesian people and that is
why I could believe that we need to come to terms with, forgive and move
on. This enabled me to even talk with former enemies and Indonesian generals.

The second but not less important was my meeting with the great leader,
then President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. I met him with a former
adversary, Mr Lopes da Cruz. At a certain moment of the meeting a vigorous
argument erupted between Lopes da Cruz and myself. Mandela intervened with
the words: "Calm down. Please don't fight. Can we continue the meeting with
a spirit of reconciliation." We both realised what had happened and we
apologised to him and continued the meeting.

This hearing today will allow former prisoners to tell their tragic
experiences in order to help them to deal with and come to terms with the
so-long repressed and silenced feelings.

I wish success and peace of heart to you all.

Thank you