Prison comarca
The Comarca Prison ( Prisão de Comarca , Penjara Comarca ) or Comarca Balide Prison was a prison in Dili , today's capital of East Timor . During the Indonesian occupation, Lembaga Pemasyarakatan Dili was the prison's official name. Today the complex is a museum and the headquarters of the Centro Nacional Chega! . It is in the Balide district .
architecture
The building has a rectangular floor plan and includes an inner courtyard that is divided by a structure that connects the two side wings. A hall with small windows and reinforced with steel bars is located in the north, larger inner courtyard.
There are six cell blocks and eight individual cells in the complex, which the prisoners called the “dark cells” because of the lack of windows. They have an area of 2.02 m × 2.72 m and a height of 3.1 m. A minimum of light and air came in through a small opening at the top of the wall.
history
The prison was built on swampy terrain in 1963 during the Portuguese colonial era . The area was notorious for the rampant malaria . With the exception of a few military buildings, there were no buildings in the neighborhood. The inmates had to do sports on the large open space in front of the prison. The new prison replaced the old one, which was located behind the Governor's Palace, the current seat of the Prime Minister . It was demolished that same year.
During the decolonization process in August 1975 a civil war broke out between the East Timorese parties UDT and APODETI on the one hand and the left-wing FRETILIN on the other. The FRETILIN gained the upper hand and from September 1975 onwards used comarca to hold 390 members of the other two parties prisoner. There was no mistreatment or torture and the supply of food was sufficient until there was no supply from the hinterland.
On December 7, 1975, Indonesian troops landed in Dili. The UDT and APODETI members imprisoned in Comarca were able to free themselves during the invasion and marched under a white flag to the Indonesian consulate in the Lecidere district . In addition to ordinary criminals, independence activists have now been imprisoned here, as have members of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) for disciplinary offenses. During this time, the political prisoner Filomeno da Silva Ferreira coined the term “Holy House” for the prison. With this ironic name, he described the complex as the place where East Timorese nationalists were imprisoned as they sought the independence of East Timor. During the entire occupation, Comarca was under the control of the Indonesian military police , even though in 1980 the Jakarta government officially placed the prisons under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
The last inmates escaped at the beginning of September 1999 during the Indonesian operation Donner after the independence referendum . The building itself was burned, like many other houses in Dili. Shortly thereafter, the INTERFET Response Force and the United Nations took control of East Timor. Under the administration of the UN , the abandoned building was renovated from January 2002 at the expense of the Japanese government and from February 17, 2003 it became the seat of the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR) . 65 graffiti by East Timorese artists tell of the time of the occupation. The eight solitary confinement cells were left in their original state. There is also a library and documentation center. Since the end of the work of the CAVR, the memorial site has been run by the Association of Former Political Prisoners (ASSEPOL).
Situation of the prisoners
Reports from prisoners were smuggled out of prison by priests on small slips of paper and reached international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International . Political prisoners were tortured in Comarca prison from the beginning during the Indonesian occupation (1975–1999). The large hall in the north courtyard was used for this. Detainees were tortured with beatings, electric shocks, soldering irons and burning cigarettes. Some were put into water barrels that were brought to a boil. Others were forced to kneel on beans or have chairs placed on their feet for someone to sit on. There were also rapes of female prisoners and extortion. Some were promised freedom if they had sex with prison staff. There have also been cases where children in Comarca were detained and ill-treated. There were regular fatalities in the 1970s and 1980s. Inmates were taken away at night and presumably killed.
On the drive to the prison, the shackled victims were blindfolded and severely beaten. Upon arrival at the prison, the blindfold was removed. Then the newcomers, regardless of gender, had to strip naked for a body search and were then interrogated. As a welcoming ritual, the prisoners had to stand under the scorching sun in the courtyard and sing "Welcome to the prison". If an inmate fainted, water was poured over them and the ritual continued. With both thumbs tied behind their backs, they were then taken into the dark cells . There were many deaths here in particular. The length of time that inmates had to spend in them in near total darkness varied over the years. If a man was in a dark cell for eight months in the 1970s , in the 1990s it was "only" normal to stay for one week. Another detention cell was separated from the eight individual cells in the inner courtyard: the Maubutar cell , also known as the cell of death or quarantine cell . Mau Butar was a FALINTIL guerrilla from the 1970s who spent two weeks in a cell. Newcomers detained here spent about six months in the cell. The size corresponded to the dark cells . Only the inmates of the Maubutar cell were actually in solitary confinement. The dark cells were usually staffed by 14 people, despite their actual classification.
Many former prisoners report that they were only allowed to wear their underpants for days or even weeks; the heat in the cell usually made further clothing impossible anyway. People slept on the floor, there was a lack of drinking water, toilets were often clogged and leftovers piled up in the cells. Vermin, such as rats and cockroaches, kept inmates from sleeping. Diseases spread among the prisoners, some of whom could only stand because of the overcrowding. Detention conditions improved when the detainees were transferred to the cell blocks. Here they were given prisoner clothing, they had more space and the conditions were more hygienic. Each block had three small windows. Otherwise there was only light from a single 45 watt light bulb.
From 1976 onwards, prisoners from all over East Timor were sent to Comarca prison. In March, prisoners carried out renovations to the prison. In the 1970s, many suspects were held for several years without conviction. There have already been blows for asking why you are in prison. The first trial did not take place until 1983, and it was only after 1990 that the majority of prisoners in Comarca were convicted. The occupancy of Comarca increased especially after military operations. While around 500 prisoners were detained in Comarca in mid-1977, the number rose to 700 by 1979, according to Amnesty. The prison governor from 1980 to 1986 again spoke of up to 500 prisoners, although an Indonesian government official told the UNHCHR sub-commission on the prevention of discrimination and the protection of minorities that Comarca would be occupied by 200 prisoners at full capacity. However, the civil prison governor complained in 1986 that the situation was "intolerable" because of the overcrowding in Comarca, which is why a further prison was built in Dili to relieve the pressure on Becora prison . The first female prisoners were transferred to Becora that same year. In the 1990s, the prisoners' situation improved thanks to the intervention of international organizations such as the Red Cross and Amnesty. Detainees now received trials and were treated better if they were well behaved. There were even football and volleyball tournaments between prisoners and soldiers and police officers.
See also
literature
- Emma Coupland: The Balide Comarca Prison: A Sacred Building , Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat, 2008 (English, PDF, 180 kB)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Statement of Amnesty International's Concerns in East Timor , August 1983 ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from a letter from the Prime Minister of Vanuatu to the United Nations Security Council, November 30, 1983, Document S / 16215, December 14, 1983, retrieved May 11, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Emma Coupland: The Balide Comarca Prison: A Sacred Building ( Memento of the original dated November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 180 kB), Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat, 2008 (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g "Chapter 7.4 Arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment" ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2 MB) from the "Chega!" Report by CAVR (English)
- ↑ a b Bilveer Singh: East Timor Indonesia and the World, Myths and Realities , Singapore, 1995, p 41 ff.
Coordinates: 8 ° 33 ′ 55.4 " S , 125 ° 34 ′ 39.8" E