Relationships in Transition: Negotiating Accountability and Productive Guilt in Timor Leste

Relationships in Transition: Negotiating Accountability and Productive Guilt in Timor Leste

The global circulation of discourses of accountability and of formal declarations of guilt for serious crimes are often decoupled from the historical realities of nations undergoing major political transitions. In contexts marred by multiple historical waves of violence, intersecting cultures of guilt formation, and a myriad of actors, the shared responsibility required for completing justice processes is colossal. This chapter focuses on the violent transitions in Timor-Leste that culminated in the restoration of independence in 2002. Building on productive guilt approaches, the chapter explores how the Timorese authorities radically reconfigured their political relations with the Indonesian authorities by decoupling the violent past actions from their actors without adopting legal impunity or openly pursuing criminal accountability. This ambiguous strategy has averted the resumption of military violence with their Indonesian former war foes, and it has allowed the Timorese authorities to maintain peace and gradually reconstruct their state and economy.