Technology Used to Document Massive Political Violence in Timor-Leste

I never publish press releases here but I'm going to make this exception. Patrick Ball is a pioneer in the use of technology to assist human rights activists. When I met him he was helping human rights workers in South and Central America use cryptography for their communications so they could avoid arrest and torture by their governments. Now, he's using databases to document human rights abuses in a form that can be used in international crimes against humanity and genocide trials. In 2002, he testified at Slobodan Milosevic's trial at the Hague on on killings and refugee movement in Kosovo.

The Benetech Initiative, which he directs, just released a statistical report detailing widespread and systematic violations in Timor-Leste during the period 1974-1999. According to the website, This report provides additional detail to the Timorese truth commission's recently released report "Chega!" ("Enough!"). Benetech's statistical analysis establishes that at least 102,800 (+/- 11,000) Timorese died as a result of the conflict. Approximately 18,600 (+/- 1000) Timorese were killed or disappeared, while the remainder died due to hunger and illness in excess of what would be expected due to peacetime mortality. More details are in this WiredNews story.

Press Release:Silicon Valley Group Uses Technology to Help the Truth
Commission Answer Disputed Questions about Massive Political
Violence in Timor-Leste

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Romesh Silva at Benetech â•„ (650) 475-5440 /
romesh@benetech.org

Palo Alto, CA, February 9, 2006 â•„ The Benetech Initiative
today released a statistical report detailing widespread and
systematic violations in Timor-Leste during the period
1974-1999. Benetech's statistical analysis establishes that at
least 102,800 (+/- 11,000) Timorese died as a result of the
conflict. Approximately 18,600 (+/- 1000) Timorese were killed
or disappeared, while the remainder died due to hunger and
illness in excess of what would be expected due to peacetime
mortality.

The magnitude of deaths in Timor-Leste has long been a subject
of contentious debate, and Benetech's results help to place
the debate on a factual basis. These estimates are the most
accurate and scientifically rigorous ever made for
conflict-related mortality in Timor-Leste. They are based on a
database compiled from three independent sources: narrative
statements, a retrospective mortality survey, and a census of
public graveyards â•„ all of which were developed jointly by
Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and the
Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR in
Portuguese), the truth commission for Timor-Leste. By
collecting new data and using well-established statistical and
demographic methods, HRDAG assisted CAVR to become the first
official truth commission in the world to draw on a household
survey and public graveyard records.

HRDAG is led by Dr. Patrick Ball, and is composed of other
human rights statisticians, outreach experts and computer
programmers. The report, written by HRDAG statistician Romesh
Silva and Dr Ball, includes and extends the statistical
chapter of the CAVR report. The CAVRâ•˙s final report was
presented by Timor-Lesteâ•˙s President Xanana Gusmao to the
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on January 20th,
2006 in New York.

In partnership with the CAVR, HRDAG has injected new
scientifically defensible analysis into the debate about
crimes of policy during the Indonesian occupation of
Timor-Leste. HRDAG's analysis describes the patterns of abuses
reported to the CAVR in approximately 8,000 narrative
testimonies which describe arbitrary detentions, torture,
rape, and massive property destruction. These analyses were
integrated into the CAVR Report alongside multi-disciplinary
research including legal reasoning, history, anthropology, and
sociology.

Dr. Ball says "The terrible violence in Timor-Leste has long
been hidden from the world's attention. Even recently, as
press coverage of the CAVR's report began, there have been
political debates about the scale, pattern, and responsibility
for the violence. Our analysis helps shift the debate from
politics to science, moving from data, to knowledge, to
official recognition of the crimes, and ultimately to
accountability."

Benetech, a local nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California,
creates technology that serves humanity by blending social
conscience with Silicon Valley expertise. In the human rights
area, Benetech's HRDAG (Human Rights Data Analysis Group) is
using science and technology to engage established
international human rights norms and answer hidden questions
about massive political violence. HRDAG, in accordance with
its legal agreement with the CAVR, will publish anonymized
versions of the data used to conduct the analysis. See
http://www.hrdag.org