I’ve been doing some online research, namely, checking out what I’ve been getting from the two daily “Google news alerts” I signed up for recently using the search terms “Saddam trial” and “transitional justice”. The Saddam trial one netted me a relatively small number of new stories, beyond what I’ve already been reading. The transitional justice one has been a really mixed bag– some news stories that have almost nothing to do with what I’ve been looking for, and alongside them some really fascinating new pieces.
Like today and yesterday. Today, I found a link to this piece, by Mark Byrne on “New Matilda.com — a different tune”, who was looking at the stalling of the efforts many white Australians had started to make 15 and 20 years ago to restore a little bit of decent balance to their relations with their country’s Aboriginal peoples.
Byrne, who’s a Jesuit social activist, writes:
- Overall, it’s a sorry picture. As former Governor-General and CAR [Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation] chair Sir William Deane said earlier in 2005, ‘In the years since Corroboree 2000, relations between Indigenous Australians… and our nation seem to me to have significantly deteriorated.’ Few people outside the government would disagree.
Responsibility is easily laid at the foot of the Prime Minister, who has consistently opposed anything other than practical measures to improve Indigenous disadvantag…
Nevertheless, the government is motivated by popular opinion as well as ideology. Opinion polls have consistently shown that while the majority of Australians are willing to accept that Indigenous people were mistreated in the past, they are divided as to whether disadvantage today represents continuing mistreatment or is rather the fault of Indigenous people themselves. They are certainly not in favour of apologising for the actions of people long dead, and do not see themselves as perpetuating racism and exploitation by their lifestyles and attitudes. In addition, the Howard government has done a sterling job of associating an apology to the Stolen Generation with personal and legal responsibility for their plight, rather than understanding ‘sorry’ to be a simple expression of compassion…
I found a really interesting piece in yesterday’s haul, too. It was a report in the Sunday Times of Australia about the recently released report of the East Timorese “CAVR”– that is, their Commission for Reception and Reconciliation.
The darned thing is, I read that news piece on another browser window, then the newspaper’s website suddenly went down, and now I can’t read it any more. Shucks…
Oh, here‘s another version of, I think, the same story– this one, from the Brisbane Courier-Mail. Here’s the lead there:
- THE Australian, British and US Governments and international arms makers should pay compensation for their part in Indonesia’s brutal 24-year occupation of East Timor, a commission of inquiry has demanded.
The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR), an independent organisation established by the East Timorese Government, is calling for reparations for victims of torture, rape and violence perpetrated by Indonesia from its invasion in 1975 to its bloody withdrawal in 1999.
The 2500-page report, which President Xanana Gusmao presented to East Timor’s Parliament on Monday, contentiously recommends East Timor’s victims be paid compensation by the colonisers Indonesia and Portugal, as well as by those nations that sold weapons to Indonesia and supported its annexation – including Australia.
Mr Gusmao spelled out the detail of the recommendation, and told Parliament he was “truly concerned” by it.
The commission also recommended a continuation of the UN-backed investigation and prosecution of war crimes in East Timor during the Indonesian occupation.
“This recommendation does not take into account the situation of political anarchy and social chaos that could easily erupt if we decided to bring to court every crime committed since 1974 or 1975,” Mr Gusmao said.
Obviously, a good story to watch further. Does anyone know of a good link to the CAVR report itself?