New Future Hidden Past

Reconciliation with massacre perpetrators angers in East Timor

New Future Hidden Past East Timor's new government is striving to promote reconciliation with Indonesia and militias who slaughtered innocents in the bloody vote for Independence.
We talk to the new government, to those attacked by the mobs and to some of the militiamen suspected of killing, rape and torture. We find that a mass clean-up operation of bodies could have concealed as many as 10,000 dead. But East Timor's new President Xanana Gusmao wants to bring about reconciliation, which effectively puts an end to international scrutiny of the truth about Indonesia's role in the violence. His government is urging all to wait for the Indonesian court to mete out justice to those on trial for human rights abuses. Yayasan Hak, the most prominent human rights group in East Timor, is counselling relatives of victims that justice will never be done. One journalist goes further, saying East Timor will not challenge Indonesia because "in order to have a small nation alongside powerful Indonesia, they have to lie on their behalf." Gusmao is trying to entice Timorese militiamen home from Indonesia with an offer of amnesty. But they will return to live amongst those neighbours who survived their butchery, so the task is huge. It's a reminder to those fighting for freedom elsewhere in the world: one day you will have to live alongside those you fought in peace.

Produced by Hobo Media
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