The Human Rights and Justice Ombudsman (PDHJ) Office Timor-Leste handed over data reports on missing children during the liberation struggle 1975-1999 to Indonesia’s National Commission for Human Rights so it can help locate the children.
PDHJ representative, Valerio Ximenes, said the data was shared during a meeting between the PDHJ and Indonesia’s National Commission for Human rights (KOMNAS HAM) held in October 2013 at the PDHJ’s office in Dili.
“The data includes the identification data for 18 children but so far KOMNAS HAM has not been able to locate them. They went searching in a location in Jogjakarta,” he said.
He added PDHJ collected the data from village chiefs and from the families of children who disappeared during Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste.
This joint initiative is based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by PDHJ and KOMNAS HAM in May 2013 in Bali, Indonesia.
He added the intention of the MoU is so the two institutions work together on missing children’s cases even though the Indonesian Government does not recognize KOMNAS HAM as part of the process between the Timor-Leste and Indonesia Governments.
Vitor da Costa, who was taken to Indonesia as a child when he was four years old, has since come back to meet his biological family in Timor-Leste. He is also involved in the commission and said Indonesian Soldiers (TNI) and other leaders have also been consulted on the matter.
“The commission just started its work on 17 November 2013. We already identified one child in Jogja who was taken across in 1988. Mariano, another child was taken 1992 but we still have not been able to locate his family. We also already located another in Malang,” Vitor said.
