THE SOLUTION OF THE CROSS COUNTRY COMMUNITY LAND CONFLICT: THE CASE OF INDONESIA AND TIMOR LESTE TRADITIONAL LAW IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM

Abstract

Since Timor Timur, now called Timor Leste, got its independence (1999), the country still has
problems of community land status between the people of both countries in their border area. The fact shows
that a member of the community land in the border area has multiple jurisdictions, where a part of the area obey
Indonesia jurisdiction and the other obey Timor Leste jurisdiction. So the owners of the community land
(citizen) in the border area also grouped into two different jurisdiction of two different countries. Such
community land, will make a continuous problem that leads to molest the stability of the two countries as well
as the peace of the society in the border. Such conflict will be difficult to be effectively solved by applying the
international law mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to be solved by applying the traditional law mechanism
of the society in the border area, since they are at the relatively the same or similar social background. Realizing
the importance of such traditional law mechanism to solve such conflict in the border area, it is suggested that
both countries, Indonesia and Timor Leste, must maximize the traditional law mechanism available in the
society in border area.
Keyword: community land, cross country, international law, traditional law