Purchase this article
USD $30.00
Democratization of Perpetration
Human Rights, Transitional Justice, and Memories of Resistance in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste
in Conflict and Society
Author:
Amy Rothschild
Amy Rothschild
University of California, San Diego, USA arothschild@ucsd.edu
Search for other papers by Amy Rothschild in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Amy Rothschild in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
USD $0.01
All currencies in US Dollar
This article examines the effects of human rights and transitional justice on memories of Timor-Leste’s resistance to the Indonesian occupation, which lasted from 1975 to 1999. Data comes from ethnographic fieldwork in Timor, centered around remembrance of two major acts of resistance: an armed uprising in 1983 and a peaceful demonstration in 1991. The article argues that in Timor, an “apolitical” human rights has caused a post-conflict “democratization of perpetration”, in that similar culpability is assigned to all those who caused suffering in the conflict with Indonesia through physical violence, irrespective of context. Transitional justice has thus expanded the category of perpetrator in Timor, to include some who legally used armed resistance against Indonesian rule. Studies of violence have belatedly turned toward examining perpetrators of state terror; this article examines how discourses of human rights and transitional justice shape perceptions of those who resist state terror with violence.