Over the last three decades, nations in transition from dictatorships and repressive regimes have formed some 30 truth commissions world wide. While most Plowshares readers are well aware of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, many may not have heard about the newest and possibly the most unique commission to address past serious violations of human rights. The Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF) is the first commission between two nations - the fourth largest country in the world, predominantly Muslim Indonesia, and the newest nation in the world, predominantly Christian Timor-Leste, which was part of Indonesia until a momentous vote for independence in 1999.

Based on our peace-building work around the world and past experience in both Indonesia and East Timor, we were invited to become “expert advisors” to CTF. Our role is to support the Commissioners in their challenging task of helping two independent nations to acknowledge and move beyond a tragic and troubling past.  In past meetings with the Commissioners we have found them to be persons of integrity and commitment as they seek to respond to the challenging mandates identified by their respective presidents.

A primary task of the CTF commissioners is to establish the conclusive truth about human rights violations which occurred in 1999. However, the commissioners are clear that the new nation’s vote for independence and the devastating aftermath of this election must be seen in the wider context of the two country’s historical past, particularly in the 26 years of Indonesian’s involvement in East Timor, and in the context of the cold war.  These years encompassed brutal conflict between the Indonesia military and those who sought to maintain the unity with Indonesia, and those who fought for liberation from what they saw as an occupying force. Some estimates suggest as much as one fourth of the original population of East Timor died as a result of this conflict, and thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides were killed, disabled and traumatized.

In addition to establishing truth, the CTF was also assigned by the presidents of the two nations to “promote friendship, seek true reconciliation and ensure the non-reoccurrence of violations of human rights in the future.” To reach these goals, the commission is taking statements from victims and the accused and begins conducting public hearings in February.  The eight distinguished commissioners from each country are also drawing on previous investigations and reports from each nation that identified and documented the charges of human rights violations – including rape, murder, intimidation and massive destruction of property - that occurred in Timor-Leste in the days and weeks before and after the 1999 UN mandated referendum.

As in South Africa, there were early criticisms of the commission and its mandates. Because it was established by the presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste, the CTF was charged with being inadequately grounded in legislation from both nations that would allow the commissioners to be independent and their recommendations to be sustainable. The CTF, which has the power to recommend -- but not grant -- amnesty was inaccurately accused of intending to grant impunity for perpetrators of serious human rights violations.  Although agencies within the United Nations also raised early concerns about the CTF, Secretary General Kofi Annan in his July 2006 report to the Security Council commended the mission of the CTF and declared that any further action by the UN will await the results of the commission’s work. As advisors, we believe that the ultimate proof of the commission’s value will come only in the years and decades ahead, determining whether the CTF was a catalyst for building genuine friendship based on better understanding, with the potential for reconciliation between the people of two nations who hold deep Christian and Muslim religious values.

We also believe that this commission has the potential of providing an example for the world of building positive relationships between two countries with a painful past and offering constructive approaches for nations seeking to move through post-conflict situations. We hope that the focus of CTF on restorative rather than retributive justice and the advocacy of the rights of victims, including communal reparations and recovery of dignity through truth-telling, may guide other commissions. Perhaps even more important, nations may be motivated to find more creative ways to prevent –or curtail- the recurrence of gross human rights violations in the future. The insights from this commission may one day serve to assist nations such as Israel and Palestine, the US and Iraq, North and South Korea, and England and Ireland to more effectively address their separated past and move toward a shared future. 

The CTF goal of having public testimony not only by victims but also by senior government and military personnel would be distinctive and ground-breaking among truth commissions of the world. Through public hearings, investigations, a final report and recommendations, CTF bears promise of making a significant contribution to peace and a culture of human rights in one of the most the pivotal areas of Asia. We will be working with the commissioners at their plenary meetings and hearings for at least a week each month from January to July, 2007 in either Timor-Leste or Indonesia until the commissioners’ mandate is concluded. We feel privileged to accompany them on this historic journey.

When we discussed the formation of the Commission on Truth and Friendship more than a year ago in South Africa with Bishop Desmond Tutu, he noted the wisdom of its name. It reflects a realistic goal to first seek friendship, since reconciliation may be too high an expectation – either in South Africa or between Timor-Leste and Indonesia. Dr. Charles Villa–Vicencio, a friend who was on the staff of the South African TRC and is now Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, sites the words of a Dinka elder.  Reflecting on the Sudanese conflict, the elder said, “Reconciliation begins by agreeing to sit under the same tree with your enemy to find a way of addressing the causes of conflict.” Villa–Vicencio also reminds us that this approach gives priority to dialogue and understanding and, at a deeper level, affirms that as human beings we are incomplete and perhaps not fully human to the extent we are alienated from one another. Villa–Vicencio declares, “To recognize the deeper human impulse to know peace is to create the kind of future that enables people to engage one another in the construction of a society that includes others on the basis of human dignity and social justice”. The East Timorese and Indonesian commissioners are learning how to sit under the same tree and may well provide guidance for fellow citizens of their own nations and the world to do the same - Inshallah, God willing