Kent, Lia. 2011. Local Memory Practices in East Timor: Disrupting Transitional Justice Narratives, International Journal of Transitional Justice., <cite><span class="slug-doi-wrapper">doi:
<span class="slug-doi" title="10.1093/ijtj/ijr016">10.1093/ijtj/ijr016</span>
</span>
</cite>
<span class="slug-metadata-note ahead-of-print">
First published online:
<span class="slug-ahead-of-print-date">September 2, 2011</span>
<br /><br />Abstract<br /></span>Transitional justice discourse is underpinned by an assumption that
trials and truth commissions will assist individuals and
societies to ‘come to terms’ with, and move on
from, complex legacies of violence. This article considers how local
practices
of memorialization and commemoration, and the
activities of victims’ groups in East Timor, disrupt these assumptions.
It highlights
how individuals and local communities in East Timor
are attempting to ‘remake a world’ in ways that may differ markedly
from
the priorities of UN-sponsored transitional justice
institutions and their nation's leaders. In addition, it explores how
some survivors are embracing the language of
victims’ rights to appeal to the state to respond to their experiences
of suffering.
These developments, which indicate that survivors
are in various ways embracing, resisting and transforming ‘official’
justice
discourses, highlight that the pursuit of justice
in post-referendum East Timor is far more dynamic, locally grounded and
open-ended than the narrative of transition
implies.
<br /><br />--<br signature="separator" />Dr Bu V.E. Wilson<br />T: Australia +61 0 407 087 086<br />T: Timor-Leste + 670 744 0011<br />E: buvewilson@gmail.com