ABSTRACT
Beatriz Guterres was one of 14 East Timorese women invited to Dili by the Commission for Reception, Truth-seeking, and Reconciliation (Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor Leste or CAVR) to participate in the Commission’s third national public hearing held on 28-29 April 2003 on the theme of Women and Conflict. The proceedings were broadcast on radio throughout the territory and published.2 Beatriz told the nation her story:
In 1991 [a] Kopassus soldier, Prada M, had duty in Lalerek Mutin. When my friends and I were in the rice field he shot in our direction. My friends pressured me so that I would become his wife in order to save myself. Because I was ashamed I stood and said, ‘OK. I’ll cut myself in half. The lower half I’ll give to him, but the upper half is for my land, the land of Timor.’ They said to me, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t run. You probably must suffer like this because your husband was murdered, whereas you are still alive…Our lives are the same.’ Then Prada M. walked with me and I answered each of his questions only with, ‘Ya’…I was just resigned to my fate. We lived as husband and wife and I had a child.3
