Chega+10
October 2015 marks 10 years since CAVR handed over the Chega! Report to Timor-Leste's President, Xanana Gusmao. AJAR and its partners are taking stock of the impact of Chega!, gathering the views of victims and human rights advocates on its unfinished business. In this photo, family members of the disappeared from the Marabia incident (June 1980) remember their loved ones. (Photo: AJAR)
Destruction
Parts of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, were burned to the ground in 1999 after Indonesia lost the independence ballot. (Photo: Ross Bird)
Survivors of Torture
Josefa and Immaculada, two East-Timorese survivors of torture, visit the former Balide prison where they were incarcerated. The building now houses an exhibition on the work of Timor-Leste’s truth and reconciliation commission (CAVR.) Josefa and Immaculada are active members of the National Victim’s Association, advocating for their rights to truth, justice and reparations. (Photo: AJAR)
Famine
In the late 1970s, tens of thousands of East Timorese, many of them children and elderly people, died from war-induced famine. (Photo: Peter Rodgers)
CAVR
The CAVR commission used a former political prison in Dili as its headquarters, symbolising Timor-Leste’s transformation. (Photo: Pat Walsh)
Reconciliation
A scene from one of CAVR’s innovative community reconciliation ceremonies. (Photo: CAVR Archive)
Learning from the past
CAVR staff tell East Timorese students about past violence during a visit to the interrogation cells in the former prison. (Photo: Pat Walsh)
Chega! Comic
After the CAVR launched its report, a group of educators and human rights workers from Timor-Leste and Indonesia worked together to produce a comic book series on Chega! The series was originally written in the Tetun language for Timorese high-school students. It is now also available in Portuguese. English and Indonesian versions will be published later in 2015.
Map
Timor-Leste is a half-island former Portuguese colony. Occupied by Indonesia 1975-1999, it is now an independent democracy of about 1 million people.