Word: timorously
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...young boy returned to the mountain village of Letefoho in fear and disgrace. He was a child in 1999 when, swept up in the militia violence that followed East Timor's vote for independence, he burnt down his aunt's house and fled. When he finally came home this year, the teenager had no idea of what he would face. He bought new roofing material for his aunt and waited. And in a public ceremony last month, he apologized to her and to his neighbors, and was forgiven...
...Across East Timor, hundreds like him have come home. A few have returned to beatings. But many more, in village hearings organized by the nation's one-year-old Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), have been accepted back into their communities. In the Letefoho area alone, the CAVR has been asked to help with 39 such meetings since December. But reconciliation with their neighbors is not the only justice the East Timorese want. For more serious crimes, for the killings, rapes and torture of 1999 and the 24 years of Indonesian occupation before that, they want the justice...
...campaign of violence forced an estimated 250,000 people into West Timor; some of whom had fled there to leave their crimes behind. Today all but about 28,000 have come home, among them those accused of lesser crimes, such as assault, intimidation and theft. So far, 200 of these have volunteered statements to CAVR. Such gatherings, says Commissioner Isabel Guterres, can be emotional events: "They hug and cry and say, 'You are like me. We are the little people.' It's the leaders they want brought to justice...
...Amid the frustration, good news came on Feb.24, with the lodging in Dili of the most significant indictments yet: charges against the former governor of East Timor, and seven key military figures, including the now retired Indonesian Minister of Defence, General Wiranto. Charged with crimes against humanity, the eight were indicted for 280 alleged murders, based on more than 1,500 witness statements. The charges brought "new hope to the people," says Jose Luis de Oliveira, head of the NGO Yayasan HAK. "Before that people were feeling frustrated that politicians were not being vocal and nothing was being done...
...feelings about his son into words. Finally, he speaks: "I don't care what religion he is or what he has done. Tell Roberto I want to see him one more time before I die. I just want him to come home." The parents of East Timor's lost children may worship different gods, but they share the same pain...