Comarca Balide is a former prison in Dili, built by the Portuguese colonial administration in 1963 and used by the Indonesian military to hold independence activists during the occupation. Burned in 1999, it was rebuilt as the headquarters of Timor-Leste’s truth commission and is now home to Centro Nacional Chega!, a memorial you can visit. This article covers the building’s history; for what to see and how to visit, read our guide to Centro Nacional Chega!.
A Portuguese colonial prison (1963–1975)
The Portuguese built the “Comarca” (district) prison in 1963 as an ordinary jail, replacing an older prison opposite the Palácio do Governo on the waterfront. It stood on marshy ground in Balide, in southern Dili, at the foot of a hill, and the swampy site was notorious for malaria.
Under Indonesian occupation (1975–1999)
After Indonesia invaded on 7 December 1975, its military took over the prison. It held independence activists and suspected members of the resistance alongside ordinary criminals, and, from 1976, detainees were brought here from across the territory. Until 1986 it was Dili’s only prison; that year overcrowding led to the opening of a new prison at Becora, and women detainees were moved there. Military police ran Comarca until it was abandoned in 1999.
Former detainees and later investigations described severe abuse: beatings, torture during interrogation, sexual violence and deaths in custody, particularly in the late 1970s and 1980s. The most feared part of the prison were the “dark cells”, windowless punishment cells behind steel doors where prisoners could be held for months in the early years, sleeping on the floor in overcrowded and filthy conditions. Pressure from organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International brought some improvements in the 1990s.
Burned in 1999, rebuilt for the truth commission
In September 1999, after the independence referendum, withdrawing Indonesian forces and militias burned buildings across the country, and Comarca was gutted and abandoned. With support from the Government of Japan, the ruins were rebuilt as the headquarters of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), the UN-backed truth commission that documented human rights violations between 1974 and 1999 and produced the Chega! report in 2005.
Today: Centro Nacional Chega!
Since December 2016 the site has housed Centro Nacional Chega!, the national institution created to carry forward the CAVR’s recommendations. The cell blocks have been kept, and graffiti left by detainees can still be seen on the walls. The centre runs the exhibition, an archive and education programmes, and organises visits for students to hear survivors’ testimony. Details for visitors are in our Chega! centre guide.
For an older chapter of colonial justice, the ruined 19th-century Portuguese Ai Pelo prison stands beside the coast road in Liquiçá. For the wider story, see our history of the Indonesian occupation, and for more history sites in the capital, things to do in Dili.