CAVR report launch in the UK

East Timor hasn't really been news in the UK since the events of 1999, when it finally got its fifteen minutes of fame, which put it on the map for many people. However, there are still people who have asked me where it was - one Rip Van Winkel asked me "what was it called before?" Now do you see why I don't call it 'Timor Leste' in English?

At Westminster, there are many All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) for different countries and territories around the world, but there's not even one for Portugal, let alone East Timor. The APPG for Indonesia is no longer the coterie of Suharto regime apologists that it was, but it wouldn't make it a good idea to make it the APPG for Indonesia and East Timor.

Yesterday saw the launch of Chega! the CAVR report first launched in Dili last year. It makes grim reading, not least the chapter on sexual violence. Ivete de Oliveira, of the Rede Feto women's network was in tears when she read from it, and had every reason to be, from the experience of her own family, and the women she had interviewed. She'd even spoken to some on the phone that morning. This wasn't Oscar acceptance speech blubbing, this was real, even if she were back to her cheerful self later on, cheerful enough to wish me a happy birthday. Obrigadu barak!

Many young Timorese are the result of women who were raped by Indonesian soldiers, and may don't know who their natural fathers are. What ws particularly distressing to hear was how their mothers were cold-shouldered by their families and by the Church. Ivete told the story of a woman who had children by five different Indonesian soldiers. When she died of cancer, she was refused the last rites because the father of her last child was Muslim.

Afterwards, a young Indonesian woman got up and told the audience how ashamed and embarrassed she had felt to hear all this. However, she's not the one of the Indonesians who should, not that they will. "Just forget it" was the reaction of the ruling elite, who still think that East Timor was "taken" from them.

Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, lamented that not more Indonesians had been invited to come, and suggested that a similar function be held in Jakarta. The CAVR report is, after all, available in Indonesian as well as English and Portuguese, and this should give it more impact. I hope that it will be translated into Tetum as well, so that East Timorese will be able to read their own history in their own language.

Chega! calls for countries like the UK, the US and Australia to pay reparations, along with companies that profited from the arms trade. However, there is virtually no chance of this happening. If it's about money, then let it come in the form of aid. Nevertheless, this is important for East Timor, not only for those who experienced it, but also future generations. If they simply "forget" their history, then the Suharto regime and its apologists will have won.