ABSTRACT
In Timor-Leste, DDR extended far beyond ex-combatants in active service when conflict ended. Only one DDR programme targeted those fighting when hostilities ceased in 1999. Three other interventions also reached out to all those who played an active role during the two decades of resistance against Indonesia and whose actions contributed to the establishment of the first new state at the dawn of the twenty-first century. This chapter considers three interconnected issues relating to DDR in Timor-Leste: first, the limitations of what DDR can be realistically expected to achieve; second, the relevance and impact of DDR ‘best practices’ in shaping outcomes; and third, the challenge confronting technical projects in addressing fundamentally subjective and wider-reaching grievances. In doing so, it poses the question of whether a discrete cluster of programmes can ever genuinely reintegrate people in the long-term. DDR in Timor-Leste partly succeeded in negating a potential security problem and providing short-term assistance. Where it failed manifestly is in providing former fighters with a longer-term framework for socio-economic advancement, a sobering conclusion for those who praise the far-reaching potential for DDR to achieve wider goals.
