Truth for social peace: World examples and lessons

 

Dilan Babat

 

NEWS CENTRE - Truth commissions established in different countries around the world have been put into practice to illuminate the dark spots of the past, to give voice to the victims and to ensure social reconciliation.

 

Is it possible to confront the pain of the past and achieve justice? How can the traumas experienced by societies after human rights violations, wars and military coups be repaired? Many countries around the world have seen truth commissions as a solution to these questions. These commissions, established in many countries from South Africa to Chile, Germany to Argentina, have become an important mechanism for justice and social reconciliation by investigating human rights violations.

 

According to the United States Institute of Peace, countries that have established truth commissions to date include Argentina, Bolivia, Chad, Chile, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Nepal, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

 

In the final section of our dossier, we analyse the functioning, successes and shortcomings of truth commissions around the world.

 

South Africa

 

South Africa witnessed bloody civil conflicts between 1960 and 1993, during which time violent clashes broke out between blacks and Afrikaners who started a struggle against the racist Apartheid regime. During these conflicts, 12 thousand people lost their lives and thousands of people became disabled. On 2 February 1990, President F. W. Klerk announced the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress (ANC) and the release of political prisoners, including ANC leader Nelson Mandela. In April 1994, the ANC came to power in the first democratic elections. In response, some civil society organisations called on the ANC to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for social reconciliation and tolerance. Minister of Justice Otto Omar announced on 27 May 1994 that a decision had been taken to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and called on all segments of society to submit comments and suggestions to the draft resolution to be prepared.

 

150 thousand booklets in 6 languages

 

In response to suggestions and criticisms from various sectors, a draft law entitled Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation was prepared. It was decided to look into the crimes committed between 1 March 1960 and 5 December 1993, to determine the identities of those who lost their lives, and to determine their fate or whereabouts. The most important feature of the bill is that ‘amnesty is possible in return for the truth being told’. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission printed and distributed 150,000 booklets in 6 languages and organised more than 30 seminars across the country on the draft resolution. The draft resolution was also read on all radios. On the other hand, a history workshop on what happened between 1960 and 1993 was conducted and a record of all human rights violations committed was created.

 

Guatemala

 

Guatemala went down in history as the country that experienced the longest civil war in South America. In the civil war that lasted 35 years between 1962-1996, 200 thousand people lost their lives, 45 thousand people disappeared and millions of people were displaced. Peace talks between the government and the guerrilla organisation, the Revolutionary Union of Guatemala (URNG), were mediated and supervised by the UN. In 1994, while these negotiations were still ongoing, the parties agreed to establish a truth commission. The truth commission, which constituted an important element of the peace process, was structured with UN support and international participation. The commission was chaired by the German jurist Christian Tomuschat.

 

 The Guatemalan Truth Commission, officially known as the Historical Clarification Commission, began its work in 1997 after the peace agreement ending the civil war was signed in December 1996. The members of the Commission made difficult treks to reach the scattered villagers of Guatemala, having to walk for 8 hours in the mountains to reach a village. In some places, the commissioners arrived to find that the communities were unaware that the civil war had ended, and sometimes villagers even thought that the commissioners were guerrillas. The Commission was tasked only with bringing to light gross human rights violations, which was defined as the identification of the responsible party. However, the agreement did not allow for the perpetrators to be named and identified. The Commission had the right to make recommendations on the restructuring of the military, but recommendations were also made on compensation to victims of rights violations. The Commission published its work in a report in 1999. The report stated that the guerrilla movement (URNG) also played a role in the violations, but that more than 90 per cent of the 626 recorded massacres were committed by the army. The report also clearly stated that the army's operations to suppress the rebellion had reached the level of genocide against the Mayan people.

 

Germany

 

At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, a process of multifaceted scrutiny of the past began in Germany as a result of intense internal and external pressures. In the 1970s, developments of great symbolic value took place. On 8 May 1970, a commemoration ceremony was held for the first time in the German Parliament. Willy Brandt, the prime minister of the time, said in his speech at the ceremony: ‘A people must be able to look at its history with a cool head. No one is free from the history he has inherited’. On 7 December 1970, Willy Brandt was inaugurated the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto, one of the most important symbols of the atrocities of World War II. He visited the memorial to the victims of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto, knelt in front of the monument and apologised on behalf of the German people to the victims of the Holocaust.

 

Spain

 

During Franco's reign, which lasted about 35 years, Spain experienced a civil war. During this period, 50 thousand people lost their lives. Since 1975, Spain has come to terms with the Franco era and has given the most successful example of the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy. After the end of the dictatorship period in Spain, there was a transition process, which was based on forgetting, not remembering. Forgetting was seen as the price of transition to democracy. As a motto of consensus and reconciliation, the slogan ‘leaving the past behind to win the future’ became the mythos of the new Spanish democracy.

 

 From November 2000 onwards, coming to terms with the past has been on Spain's agenda with increasing intensity. In 2000, a citizens' initiative called Reclaiming Historical Memory was established, and thousands of people whose fate was unknown during the civil war and Franco era were investigated. Many mass graves were identified and opened, and the dead were reburied. After the Socialists came to power in March 2004, the thick veil over the past was lifted, and in June 2004 the Parliament passed a motion demanding material and moral recognition and reparation for all victims of genocide. In the same year, the parliament decided to remove the statues of Franco. The government granted pensions to the spouses and children of the murdered. In 2006, the government drafted and passed a bill called the Law on Historical Memory. It was decided to support the search for the remains of those killed in the civil war, to ban activities glorifying the dictatorship, and to officially recognise the unfairness of the political imprisonment decisions taken under Franco.

 

Argentina

 

Argentina underwent a military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, and the cost of this dictatorship was very heavy. After being detained, people were loaded onto military cargo planes and dumped in the middle of the ocean; a total of 30 thousand people disappeared during the seven-year junta regime. After Alfonsin won the elections, Argentina began to come to terms with the past. On 15 December 1983, a commission for missing persons, known as the Argentine Truth Commission, was established by presidential decree, which operated under the name of the National Commission for Missing Persons (CONDADEP). The commission, chaired by the famous writer Ernesto Sabato, fought many difficulties and overcame them with the determined support of national and international organisations. The commission, which processed nearly 50,000 pages of witness statements and complaints, completed its work in nine months and delivered its report, which became known as ‘Never Again’, to President Alfonsin. The report, made public on 28 November 1984, stated that 8,960 people were forcibly disappeared. It was stated that this number would increase even more if the investigations continued. The report also emphasised that there were 340 secret detention centres under the command of high-ranking security forces, where every conceivable kind of torture was applied and many people were murdered.

 

After the preparation of the report, the trial of the junta leaders started in 1985 and most of the generals who were members of the junta were sentenced to imprisonment.

 

 Chile 

 

Chile was under the bloody rule of military rule from 1973 to 1989. During this period, more than 4,000 civilians were killed, tens of thousands tortured and hundreds of thousands arrested. The regime, weakened by the economic crisis, was replaced by a parliamentary regime in 1989. In 1990, the Truth Commission was established. The commission, which initially started its activities as a civilian organisation, was later transferred to the Parliament. The commission consisted of 8 people selected by President Aylwin. The commission, which also included members of the Pinochet regime, heard 35,000 people in 3,400 cases and reached a final conclusion in 641 cases. In the report of the commission, it was stated that the state organs systematically violated human rights and the judiciary remained inactive during the military rule. In the report, in which the names of the perpetrators were not included, 5 thousand people were entitled to compensation of 5 thousand dollars per year.

The commission, which operated from May 2003 to May 2004, interviewed 35,865 people. The 1,300-page report was made public by President Lagos. In the report, 802 detention and detention centres, most of which were kept secret, were identified, 28,459 people were tortured. It was noted that they should be paid a salary.

 

 Indonesia 

 

The 30-year conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesia has claimed 15,000 lives. Immediately after the fall of dictator Suharto in May 1998, the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to investigate and bring to light human rights violations committed under the former regime. In 2006, the Constitutional Court declared the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Law invalid. Although the Indonesian commission also drew on the experience of other countries, it mainly modelled itself on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

 

 Abdullah Öcalan's commission proposal 

 

PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was the first to propose truth and reconciliation commissions in Turkey. After meeting with his lawyers on 2 July 2003, Abdullah Öcalan announced a 10-point road map for a solution and proposed two separate committees to implement the road map. The first committee is a truth commission inspired by the South African model. Abdullah Öcalan stated that the committee could include Turkey's most distinguished intellectuals, jurists, former politicians, literary figures, former bureaucrats, and representatives from DEHAP. He emphasised that the committee could develop political solution proposals, determine the balance sheet of the two sides, and reveal the inner face of 30 years of violence. Abdullah Öcalan's second proposal was for a Peace and Democratic Solution Committee to mediate between KADEK and the state for a solution. Abdullah Öcalan wanted this committee, which would meet directly with the parties, to be composed of civil society organisations, parties and intellectuals and suggested that disarmament could be implemented if the committee met with the parties.  

 

However, this suggestion of Abdullah Öcalan was not implemented!