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Abstract
This article examines how East Timorese women's contributions to the resistance against the twenty-four-year Indonesian occupation (“the Resistance”) have been marginalized within the veteran's valorization scheme (veterans' scheme) established in the post-conflict period. Drawing on interviews with politicians, veterans and members of women's organizations, we show that although women played significant roles within the Armed, Clandestine and Diplomatic fronts, for the most part they have not been recognized as veterans within the veterans' scheme. Instead, the scheme has reinforced perceptions of women's roles as wives, mothers, homemakers and widows, rather than as political actors, suggesting that the return to “peace” in Timor-Leste has been accompanied by the strengthening of patriarchal traditions and the expectation that women return to “traditional” roles. We argue that the failure to recognize women as veterans is problematic both for East Timorese women and society as a whole. It represents a lost opportunity to recognize women's agency and potentially to improve their social status in society. It also narrows the way in which the independence struggle is remembered and represented and further promotes a culture of “militarized masculinity” that elevates and rewards men who show the capacity to use violence.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Natalia de Jesus Cesaltino and Manuela Pereira for valuable research assistance and advice and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Notes on contributors
Lia Kent is a Research Fellow with the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the Australian National University. She has worked in and conducted research on Timor-Leste since 2000. Dr Kent is author of The Dynamics of Transitional Justice: International Models and Local Realities in East Timor (Routledge, 2012) and numerous articles, book chapters and reports on post-conflict peace-building issues in Timor-Leste.
Naomi Kinsella is an Australian lawyer who has been working in the area of international development and human rights since 2005. Research for this paper was conducted while Naomi was working with the International Center for Transitional Justice in Timor-Leste on a program promoting the rights of conflict victims. She is currently Country Director for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Notes
1 Speech of the OPMT Secretary General, Lourdes Maria A. M. Alves de Araujo at a fundraising event for the OPMT documentation project, 6 August 2010.
2 All interviews were conducted in 2011 by Naomi Kinsella and Natalia de Jesus Cesaltino using a semi-structured interview format. Most interviews were conducted in Tetun (the lingua franca of Timor-Leste). Transcripts were provided to all interviewees. Three people approached declined to be interviewed: one senior male politician and two women parliamentarians. The two women parliamentarians (who were also veterans) explained that they had already been interviewed by other researchers about this topic and yet to be provided with the results of the research. They were therefore reluctant to be interviewed again. The fact that a foreign woman was one of the researchers may have influenced the male politician's decision to decline to be interviewed. This may have also influenced how other interviewees responded to questions.
3 Statistics on pension recipients as of 2009 were obtained from the office of the Secretary of State for the Issues of Ex-combatants of National Liberation.
4 Interview with Andre da Costa Abel (nom de guerre L4), 26 March 2011; interview with Elisa dos Santos, 25 March 2011.
5 While the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) found that some men were also the victims of sexual violence, such as those who experienced sexual torture in detention, it concluded that the vast majority of victims were women (CAVR 2005: ch. 7).
6 Interview with Lourdes Maria A. M. Alves de Araujo, Secretary General of OPMT, 5 April 2011. See also Office for Promotion of Equality et al. 2005, episode 5.
7 Interview with International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) Timor-Leste Program Coordinator, Manuela Pereira, 13 April 2011. In addition, one former woman clandestine leader explained how she supported her husband's activities by concealing letters in her undergarments or within the house. More detailed information, such as the contents of letters or identities of Resistance contacts who visited their house, was concealed from her in a desire to protect her, and the clandestine network itself. Interview 20 April 2011.
8 Interview with ICTJ Timor-Leste Program Coordinator, Manuela Pereira, 13 April 2011.
9 Interview with Andre da Costa Abel (nom de guerre L4), 26 March 2011.
10 See Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Articles 3 and 4.
11 Presidential Dispatch on the Commissions, 01/2003 of 3 April 2003.
12 Widows of “fallen or massacred husbands” were, however, identified as a top priority for receiving material assistance through a future veterans’ pension scheme, along with orphans, the elderly and otherwise vulnerable former combatants (CAAC-CAVF 2004).
13 Two different technical commissions were created in 2004 and 2006 respectively to verify the previous commissions' data and consolidate it into a single database. See Gusmão (Citation2004, Citation2006).
14 Statistics from the Secretary of State for National Liberation Combatant Affairs, March 2011.
15 Law 3/2006 as amended by Law 9/2009 of 29 July 2009, Article 4.
16 Law 3/2006 as amended by Law 9/2009 of 29 July 2009, Article 23 (1), 31–32.
17 Law 3/2006 as amended by Law 9/2009 of 29 July 2009, Article 23 (2).
18 Decree Law 8/2009 of 15 January 2008. In 2010 and 2011, a total of 250 scholarships were available to a total amount of USD152, 250 and USD169,900 respectively.
19 See Law 3/2006 prior to its amendment in English. Available at http://www.unmit.org/legal/RDTL-Law/RDTL-Laws/Law-2006-03.pdf (accessed June 10, 2012).
20 For example, in January 2008, when the government attempted to reduce pension amounts due to budgetary constraints, the opposition party accused the government of “insulting veterans” and the proposed reductions were never made. See Timor-Post (2008).
21 This is even more likely given that none of the 121,000 applications lodged as part of a second registration phase have been verified, and that pension payments are retroactive to 2008. See Timor Post (Citation2009).
22 Interviews with: Secretary of State for National Liberation Combatant Affairs, Marito Reis, 21 March 2008; Parliamentarian Cornelio Gama (nom de guerre L7), 12 April 2011; Parliamentarian Faustino dos Santos (nom de guerre Renan Selak), 13 April 2011; Parliamentarian and head of the parliamentary committee on veterans' affairs, Osorio Florindo C. Costa, 28 March 2011; Vice-President of Parliament, Maria Paixão, 30 May 2011.
23 Although the provision is not gender-specific, women are disproportionately affected given that most women are able to access a veterans' pension due to their deceased husbands.
24 We are grateful to the comments of an anonymous reviewer for this insight.
25 Initially the right to a survival pension was limited to widows. In 2009 this was amended to include widowers as well.
26 Interview with Vice-President of the Parliament, Maria Paixão, 30 May 2011; interview with Parliamentarian Maria Maia dos Reis, 28 May 2011.
27 Discussions with East Timorese human rights activists, 7 April 2011.
28 Interview with Lourdes Maria A. M. Alves de Araujo, Secretary General of OPMT, 5 April 2011; interview with Maria Paixão, Vice President of the Parliament and OPMT member, 20 March 2011. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão's second wife is a high-profile example of how the veterans' Statute applies to “bush wives.” Gusmão was legally married to Emilia Baptista prior to the war. After he became separated from her, he lived with another woman who subsequently suffered prolonged torture and detention due to her relationship with the former Resistance leader. As this woman is not legally married to Gusmão, she has no right to a pension under the veterans' scheme.
29 We are grateful to the comments of an anonymous reviewer for this insight.
30 Statistics obtained from the Secretary of State for National Liberation Combatant Affairs, March 2011.
31 Statistics from the Secretary of State for National Liberation Combatant Affairs, March 2011. This is most likely to be a male family member given that only 13.5 percent of those who registered as NLCs during the first registration phase were women.
32 This income may be particularly significant in areas where wealth is traditionally inherited through male family members and where widows can be excluded from her husband's land and assets by his family. In these areas, the survival pension may in practice be providing women with a form of inheritance rights. See NGO's Working Group (Citation2009).
33 In Maliana, a woman was almost stabbed by her husband's family when she went to collect her first pension payment from the bank. Belun, a local NGO monitoring local-level conflict, has recorded a similar incident of conflict between a widow and her husband's family.
34 See Law 3/2006 as amended by Law 9/2009 of 29 July 2009, Article 33.
35 One notable exception was the successful attempt to advocate for honorary military decorations, including “The Order of the Guerilla,” to be bestowed upon women who were stationed with FALINTIL in the jungle. Although the women maintain political, rather than military, titles, that this award recognizes them as part of the Armed front is significant. See Presidential Decree 56/2006 of 5 December 2006. There has been resistance to this initiative from former FALINTIL Commander and current Timorese President Taur Matan Ruak, who complained that women “who just sat there” have been provided with the same level of symbolic recognition as men who directed military strategy. Interview, 21 March 2011.
36 Interview with Lourdes Maria A. M. Alves de Araujo, Secretary General of OPMT, 5 April 2011; interview with Nuno Rodrigues, researcher on the documentation project, 6 April 2011.