Comarca Balide Prison

Constructed by Portuguese colonizers in the 1960s, the Comarca Balide Prison was a notorious interrogation and detention center during the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste from 1975-1999. For thousands of East Timorese civilians, Comarca Balide was a site of disappearance, execution without trial, starvation, filth, and torture.

Following the independence of Timor-Leste, the former prison became the national headquarters of the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor-Leste, or CAVR). CAVR chose to preserve the prison, including graffiti left by soldiers and inmates, as an enduring reminder of the brutalities committed there, thereby transforming a space notorious for the violation of human rights into a human rights center. Timor-Leste’s Association of Ex-Political Prisoners’ Living Memory Project and the Timor-Leste Support Office of the Commission for Truth and Friendship were also given a space in the former prison.

With the expiration of its mandate, CAVR dissolved in 2005, transferring responsibility for the maintenance and management of Comarca, including its archives, to the Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat. In August 2007, Timor-Leste’s newly elected President José Ramos-Horta requested an extension of the Secretariat’s mandate and expressed his support for the development of Comarca into a national memorial site.

References

Barrett, Neil. “The Truth of the Matter.” The Age, June 17, 2004.
External Link

Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor-Leste (CAVR), official website
External Link

International Center for Transitional Justice: Report on CAVR
External Link

Discussions

Discussion of Comarca Balide

Is it possible to turn a site of reprehensible crimes into a human rights center? The post-occupation stewards of Comarca Balide did just that, introducing…

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Design of Comarca Balide

After independence, Timor-Leste’s Association of Ex-Political Prisoners (ASEPPOL) assumed guardianship of Comarca Balide. In April 2002, ASEPPOL agreed to give CAVR use of the building…

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