THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PEACE BUILDING IN TIMOR-LESTE 1975-1999

Eugenia Urania Da Costa Correia (2022) THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PEACE BUILDING IN TIMOR-LESTE 1975-1999. Thesis (S2) thesis, Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana.

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Abstract

Timor-Leste is an island nation that is geographically part of the Asia Pacific. This nation is a boundary between Indonesia and Australia. In 1515, the Portuguese came to colonize this island and introduced of the Catholic Religion to the kings of Timor and influenced them to become Christian Catholics. On November 28, 1975, FRETILIN proclaimed Unilateral Independence, however, on the 7th of December 1975, Indonesian military invaded Timor-Leste. Indonesia annexed Timor-Leste as Timor-Timur Province and became the 27th province of Indonesia for 24 years. Freedom and respect for human dignity is the key for the Timorese people to fight against occupation and/or invasion. Collaborative relations between the Catholic Church and the state in Timor-Leste have been continuous, reinforcing each other, both in colonial and postcolonial times. Since so many violations and crimes were conducted from the Indonesian militaries, the Catholic Church could not be silent watching these criminalities and abuses. During this time, the Catholic Church played an essential function in society and became one of the most prominent advocates for human rights. In this thesis, the researcher focuses on the Catholic Church's roles and contributions to Timor-Leste during the Indonesian occupation. The author would like to focus on this subject because there are very few writing documents about the Catholic Church’s support and involvement in the liberation struggle, and also there are uncommon writing documents or undocumented about the religious victims during the internal conflict in Timor-Leste. This research also aims to find out the religious people’s contributions and involvements in National Peace Plan Processes before the referendum and also distinguish the crucial activities that were conducted from the church organizations to promote peace in Timor-Leste during the occupation era. Besides the active non-violence activities, the religious organizations also contributed to humanitarian support such as food, medicines, and other basic needs when the Indonesian militaries bombed all the cities, as well as continued in the education sectors to help the Timorese people to access the education. This research is historical research that uses a qualitative method to gather the data through the Oral History and Life History of the Key Stakeholders, Interviews, Documentary Analysis, and Participant Observation. The findings of this research show how the Catholic Church contributes to and supports for Timorese people during the struggle for independence. As a consequence of the Church’s roles and contributions, some of them should be killed during the occupations; the Churches and Chapels should be burnt, and destroyed all the necessary history documents. The Bishops in Timor-Leste at those periods were threatening and sent out from Timor-Leste. The Church was not merely focusing on the pastoral activities and humanitarian support but also became the messenger and influencer to change the political strategy from the fighting to dialogue and transforming the political structure from the Marxism-Leninism to the National Unity between the Timor-Leste people. The Church had an important role in the education sector and also the Church was a safe place for the resistance and youth in Timor-Leste. The conflict violence or the human rights violations in Timor has marked negative perspective on the mindset of the people in Timor-Leste among each other. Peacebuilding activities are essential to continue transform people’s behavior and attitude to be non-violence. The religious peacemaker is committed primarily to the cessation of violence and the resolution of conflict. Forgiveness and reconciliation are positive ways to build peace. The religious leaders are enduring to support the government for developing the country through involvement in the reconciliation processes, facilitating the dialogue between the Timorese leaders and Timorese communities as well as between the nation’s leaders of Timor-Leste and Indonesia. According to the Christian Doctrine is to promote peace and justice through the active non-violence ways, as Jesus Christ is solitary a virtuous model for peacebuilders.

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