By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

DILI, East Timor — Over 170 non-government organizations met in East Timor to vocalize their dissatisfaction with the Timorese government for offering impunity to rebels responsible for the country’s past violence. The forum urged East Timor to be more accountable for both past and present indiscretions.   

The conference mainly focused on the violence that erupted in 2006 after the government fired 600 military members for protesting alleged discrimination. The army divided along factional lines sparking violence that killed 37 and drove 150,000 from their homes. Two years later, roughly 100,000, about a tenth of the population, remain displaced and living in camps outside the capital city, Dili.

At the conference, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao announced that the rebels responsible for the 2006 violence would not be prosecuted. The state, he said, was “not exempt from responsibility”  in allowing the soldiers’ dissatisfaction to escalate. Mr. Gusmao is proposing to pay ex-soldiers to rejoin the army.

But NGOs report that East Timor lacks the economy, security, and housing resources to help its homeless. The forum questioned why crimes committed after 2006 remain unsolved, and why “not one convicted person is in a legally recognized prison facility?”

In 2006, the government looked on as displaced people chased others out of homes and set fire to buildings. “Many people observe that those who commit political crimes go free even though they were recommended for prosecution by independent commissions,” read a statement presented at the forum.

Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group has warned that without greater investigation into the root of the problem, merely rounding up the rebels responsible for last month’s attacks on the President and Prime Minister, will not end the violence.

For more information, please see:
ABC News: Australia — East Timor government, partners, criticized — 01 April 2008

Bloomberg.com — East Timor Faces Unrest Unless Evacuees Resettled, Group Says — 01 April 2008

The Age: Australia — Timor urged to get tough on offenders — 31 March 2008

Pinoy Press: Phillippines — Timor-Leste’s Displacement Crisis — 31 March 2008

The Morung Express — Timor truth commission ready to report findings — 20 March 2008