Truth and Reconciliation Commission

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission ( English Truth and Reconciliation Commission , shortly TRC ) was a South African facility for the investigation of politically motivated crimes committed during the period of apartheid . It was created on an initiative of the ANC and the then Justice Minister Abdullah Omar in 1994 and was installed in January 1996 by President Nelson Mandela . The chairman was the black Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu . The commission, which was supposed to investigate crimes committed by members of all ethnic groups regardless of the skin color of the perpetrators and thus contribute to reconciliation, worked until 1998.

So-called “ truth commissions ” have been set up in many states since the 1980s after the transition from dictatorship to democracy. The South African commission had the Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación (the so-called Rettig Commission , named after Senator Raúl Rettig ) as a model in Chile from 1990 to 1991 ; ten years later the Comisión Nacional de Prisión Política y Tortura was convened there.

Prehistory and origin

In 1990, by order of President Frederik Willem de Klerk, the Harms Commission was set up to investigate illegal acts by the South African security authorities. It met under the direction of Judge Louis Harms, at times in the South African embassy in London . However, it remained largely without consequences, as the officers questioned denied any guilt. The Goldstone Commission met from 1991 to 1994 . The role of the security authorities and other cases of "public violence" were examined again. As a result, several high-ranking army and police officers were dismissed.

In 1995, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995 was passed by Parliament . The TRC was convened for 18 months from 1996 on the basis of this law. It should be able to be extended by half a year. The relatively short period of their activity was already controversial at the time of the draft, since the plethora of cases to be treated hardly seemed to be dealt with during this time. However, it was also important to quickly make the consequences of the apartheid system public in order not to have to pay compensation after many years and not to unnecessarily prolong the painful process of clarification.

The psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela , who was herself a member of the commission, said:

“Courts encourage people to deny their guilt. The Truth Commission invites you to tell the truth. The guilty are punished in court, and the repentant are rewarded in the Truth Commission. "

Another motive for the establishment was the realization that a thorough examination of the apartheid era by the police and the judiciary was hardly to be expected. After the end of apartheid in 1993, almost the entire police apparatus, the military and the judiciary were still occupied by the same (white) people, some of whom had been involved in politically motivated crimes. It was unlikely that this apparatus would suddenly have been ready to deal with its own decades of involvement in crimes neutrally and to bring people from its own ranks to justice. In this respect, the commission also represented a compromise in order to enable clarification in the first place.

aims

Their aim was to bring victims and perpetrators into a "dialogue" and thus create a basis for reconciliation between the divided population groups. The priority here was hearing or perceiving each other's experiences. No politically or racially motivated “pre-selection” was made as to whose crimes the Commission should deal with as a matter of priority.

Violence by whites (primarily by the police and the military) against blacks, violence by blacks (mainly by the ANC ) against whites, and violence between blacks, such as in the conflict between the Inkatha and the ANC from 1989 onwards, also became topics of discussion which alone claimed around 15,000 victims. As it turned out during the hearings, this was promoted by forces within the white government through illegal means (see below, "Results").

The ideals of Mahatma Gandhi , who lived in South Africa for over two decades and worked according to his principles of Satyagraha , are reflected in the principles of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Not the confrontation, but the perception of the "other" was in the foreground.

The defendants were promised amnesty if they fully admitted what they had done, and the victims were promised financial aid. The aim was to achieve reconciliation with the perpetrators and as complete a picture as possible of the crimes committed during apartheid. All hearings were therefore public.

Results

The Commission heard many victims of political violence, some of whom received financial compensation. The sums paid by the state, however, at a maximum of around 20,000 euros per person, were significantly lower than recommended by the commission.

Numerous murders and terrorist attacks from the apartheid era were cleared up. In many cases, relatives of black people who had simply disappeared received information about their fate or the circumstances of their death for the first time. Eugene de Kock's statements attracted particular attention, also internationally . He was the head of the secret anti-terrorist unit C1 (formerly C10) of the police, which became known as Vlakplaas after its headquarters . This had tortured and murdered numerous black opposition members and was responsible for a number of bomb attacks, among other things. De Kock's application for amnesty was rejected.

In addition, de Kock revealed how forces within the government in the last years of apartheid tried, in some cases successfully, to stir up conflicts between black population groups and thus delay the end of apartheid. This happened mainly through arms deliveries to the Inkatha Freedom Party , which was in opposition to Nelson Mandela's ANC .

Out of 7,112 applicants, 5,392 were refused an amnesty.

structure

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission consisted of three committees, each of which performed different tasks:

  • The Committee for the Investigation of the Crimes of Apartheid
  • The Committee for Compensation for Victims
  • The Amnesty Grant Committee

On October 29, 1998, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its final report.

criticism

The work of the commission was not without criticism. One important aspect was the impunity, which was planned from the beginning, for perpetrators who testified before the commission. This was generally seen as a helpful concession in order to be able to investigate the crimes committed at all, because otherwise the perpetrators would hardly have been willing to report them. In practice, however, this led to situations that many observers and relatives of victims found unacceptable. It regularly happened that members of the police and the military confessed to serious crimes before the commission, such as severe torture or the cruel execution of a suspect, only to then leave the room as free men. The relatives, who mostly found out about their relative's death in this way, were left traumatized without having found justice. It was particularly controversial that the perpetrators were not only protected from criminal prosecution for their confessed acts , but also from civil law claims for damages by surviving victims or their dependents.

A broad social discussion arose around this topic in South Africa, with blacks in particular criticizing the fact that the aspect of the amnesty was rated higher for the perpetrators than their fair punishment. Some relatives of victims tried unsuccessfully to have the principle of amnesty outlawed through the courts, such as Steve Biko's family .

The anti-apartheid activist, women's rights activist and winner of the Anne Klein Women's Prize Nomarussia Bonase criticizes the fact that the perpetrators were allowed to speak, but the victims did not speak. In order to fight this grievance, she founded the organization Khulumani , which means in isiXhosa "freely express your opinion".

Other countries

See main article : Truth Commission .

The idea of ​​the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been implemented in other countries in recent years. Some time ago there were voices that also emphasized the chances of a truth and reconciliation commission in Iraq .

Such a commission is mentioned several times in the literature. An example of this is the play Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman , in which a lawyer is appointed to a truth commission that deals with the victims of the Augusto Pinochet regime .

literature

Movie

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Stahl: Report of the Chilean Truth Commission. In: Sources on the history of human rights. Working Group on Human Rights in the 20th Century, May 2015, accessed on January 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Leah Barkoukis, Charles Villa-Vicencio: Truth Commissions. A Comparative Study . Georgetown University, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation 2011. on www.ijr.org.za ( Memento from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ^ Report on the results of the Goldstone Commission , accessed on July 13, 2012
  4. ^ Wording of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995 (English), accessed on January 22, 2016
  5. ↑ Katja Thimm, Johann Grolle: Fear of the smell of blood. Der Spiegel , May 8, 2006
  6. ↑ a b c Bartholomaeus Grill: The fighting dog sings. Die Zeit, issue 40/1996
  7. ^ Amnesty Hearings & Decisions. Ministry of Justice of South Africa, accessed August 9, 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b Report of the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (English), accessed on October 8, 2012
  9. ↑ “No reconciliation without healing” , the daily newspaper , March 15, 2017