Dili – The building of the former Portuguese and Indonesian prison of Balide, Dili, hosts this week-end an exhibition dedicated to former political prisoners of East Timor between 1975 and 1999.

The exhibition is organised by the Association Memory Alive, which is dedicated to the collection of material on the prisoners Timorese under Indonesian occupation of East Timor.

Films and photographs will be shown Saturday and Sunday in the former prison of the Comarca, name it is known that the building of Portuguese colonial era that embraced, after 1975, the largest number of political prisoners.

It was in this building that served the Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) Timorese and where it is installed the file resulting from the investigations and hearings over the years of occupation.

"The ex-political prisoners have not yet been recognized as a group in the fight for independence," said the Agency Lusa the Australian journalist Jill Jolliffe, coordinator of the Memory Alive.

"As a group, continue to suffer from exclusion," explained the journalist, known for its militant monitoring of the situation in East Timor since the start of the Indonesian occupation.

"Those who were always continue to suffer," summed Maria da Silva Benfica on the situation of ex-prisoners after the independence of East Timor.

"Unlike the veterans, former prisoners never have an open door," added Maria da Silva Benfica, one of the collaborators of the Memory Alive.

Maria da Silva Benfica was arrested, questioned and tortured by the Indonesians in 1977, first in the building Tai Sang Ho, in the centre of the capital, and then in the Comarca.

In all, about 10 thousand Timorese passed through the prison during the occupation (1975-199), in prisons in East Timor or Indonesia, said Jill Jolliffe, which for several years has studied the path of ex-prisoners.

Most of these prisoners have suffered some form of torture, said Jill Jolliffe. "It is an impressive number, especially when you consider the universe of affected people," considering the extended families Timorese, stressed.

Jill Jolliffe says, by the way, the disturbing findings of a study done during the transition period after the referendum for independence.

Available data point to 75 percent of Timorese households with a family victims of torture and to 34 percent of the population suffering forms of post-traumatic stress.

This legacy of pain, stressed Jill Jolliffe, has never been addressed or treated. "Without democracy there can be no healing," summarizes the Australian journalist.

Jill Jolliffe believes that the extent of the trauma is one of the factors that contributes to the current eruption of violence in one of the causes of the crisis of 2006.

"The irrational violence since 1999 has much to do with the post-traumatic stress and things that need healing," argued Jill Jolliffe.

"The political violence plays in the domestic violence and is transmitted to the next generation," stressed the journalist. "We must also consider that there is a generation of East Timorese who have never lived in a society with law and order," he added.

The Association Memory Alive has already recorded 52 testimonies from former prisoners on film, 11 of which are edited and transcribed for about 40 Portuguese, the language of the project work.

"The end product should be a small collection or file on ex-prisoners. But that depends on grants that do not yet exist," said Jill Jolliffe. "It is time for ex-prisoners have practical relief and honor due," added the journalist.