After many painful twists and turns, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian residential schools will finally have its first national event this month, taking place June 16-19 in Winnipeg.
While many familiar with the TRC concept might have South Africa’s public hearings in mind, Canada will follow a different format. The primary mandate of the commission is to document testimony from survivors and others affected by the schools so that their experiences can be added to the historical record. Thus, there will be no face-offs between perpetrator and abused, nor panels of commissioners interviewing survivors in front of a large audience. Smaller tents will be set up for testimony – potentially on video should the witness desire – as well as traditional healing, prayer, meditation, and other support services.
Beyond recording testimony, the event is also intended to serve as a celebration of indigenous culture, with musical performances, art exhibitions, and a traditional powwow.
The Legacy Project will be in attendance, interviewing officials and survivors and documenting events as they unfold. Check back here for updates from the road!
CNN recently ran a fascinating piece on the life of Efraim Zuroff, a Jewish American whose uncle, aunt, and two cousins were among the victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania. While great attention has been paid, of course, to the impact of the Holocaust in Germany, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe, Lithuania has traditionally been neglected, both because of its size and its government. Since independence in 1991, Lithuania has not punished any of its WWII war criminals and, in Zuroff’s words, “Nowhere in the world has a government gone to such lengths to obscure their role in the Holocaust.”
Shockingly, the percentage of Lithuanian Jews killed during the Holocaust was a high mark for Europe, falling between 90-96% of the total Jewish population. According to Zuroff, the “success” of the final solution in Lithuania was a product of strong local support. There is support for this view. The infamous Jaeger Report doles out extensive credit to local Lithuanians for eliminating Jews without any Nazi support. While other European countries that committed grave crimes during the Holocaust – Germany foremost among them – have sought to make amends, to the limited degree possible, Lithuania remains largely dismissive. According to one MP, “quite a large segment of Lithuanian society is still inclined to consider Jews as collectively responsible for the mass killings and deportations of civilians.”
The CNN report tracks the controversy into the present, outlining the struggle to prosecute accused criminals and to document the “truth” of what occurred.
I was in Athens two weeks ago. While the city was superficially calm – tourist shops in particular were abundant and eager for business – it was merely a temporary break in the building storm. And, despite the relaxed vibe, the looming problems were clearly displayed in the strike by government employees which, among other things, closed the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum for the day.
The primary source of dissatisfaction has been the austerity measures demanded by the European Union in exchange for any sort of bailout. That outrage culminated today in violent riots and the deaths of three Greeks, adding to the death toll that began last December when a 15 year-old was killed by an Athenian policeman.
What has been fascinating from the perspective of historical legacies has been the heated dialogue between Greece and Germany. As the Greeks flinched at some of Germany’s proposed conditions, some Germans accused the Greeks of laziness and two German MPs suggested that Greece sell some of its islands to pay for its debt. Greek leaders, including the Prime Minister, responded with anger, arguing that Germany has owed their country reparations for 70 years, dating back to the Nazi invasion and occupation in World War II. That language resurfaced in news reports again today.
As anger in Greece boils over, one wonders if other historical sources of resentment, which hibernated during fruitful times, will resurface as the economic crisis continues.
Late last week, Kenya’s Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission unveiled its work plan, initiating its work in earnest. At the forefront, this includes provincial visits to educate residents of all eight provinces of the nature of the TJRC’s work. The KBC reported that this would involve statement-taking, but the Daily Nation subsequently corrected that, quoting the commission’s chairman, Mr Bethuel Kiplagat, who “said the first phase of their engagement with the public ‘was not to hold hearings or take statements’ but to ensure a clear understanding of the TJRC’s mandate.” Some were concerned that the TJRC’s actions would be limited by the pending lawsuit from Kenyans Against Impunity, which challenges the selection of commissioners, but those concerns appear to have been unfounded.
Many remain skeptical of the commission’s viability. In an editorial published in the Daily Nation, Gabriel Dolan expressed serious concerns. First, he notes that truth commissions typically reflect a later stage of the transitional justice process and that Kenya is still early in its transition – if that transition has even begun at all. He also bemoans the commission’s decision to restrict its focus to political matters instead of using its broader mandate to explore socio-economic abuses. As Dolan writes, “In other words, the pain of millions of Kenyans is a result of the gain of a few dozen villains, who looted the country’s coffers and who must now be held accountable.” However, based on the commission’s early actions, it appears those crimes will go unaddressed.
Dolan is highly critical of South Africa’s TRC’s failure to address the economic impact of apartheid, and it is a fair point. Of course, efforts in that direction of South Africa may well have torpedoed the commission’s work and the peaceful transition to democracy. Still, was that short-sighted? Economic reparations and sanctions seem to be the most difficult part of the transitional justice process.
This week brought major developments from the southern half of South America. In Argentina, efforts to try a former pilot for crimes committed during the military dictatorship were bolstered by Spain’s agreement to extradite the man. Julio Alberto Poch is accused of piloting “death flights” for prisoners at ESMA, the infamous detention and torture center in Buenos Aires. “Death flights” involved the transport of tranquilized prisoners over the ocean, where they were ejected from the plane. Spain’s willingness to extradite is a continuation of its strong commitment to human rights and reflective of a heightened international effort to hold those responsible for major abuses.
Meanwhile, to the west, Chileans elected their new president, Sebastian Pinera. Pinera is the country’s first democratically elected conservative to win the presidency in more than five decades. The immediate response was to see this as a major setback to the human rights movement. It undeniably represents the failure of the left-center coalition to accomplish meaningful improvements. The return of democracy has brought little of any improvement to the economic circumstances for most poor Chileans. And, many left-leaning Chileans feel as though their leaders have betrayed them politically. Their candidate in this election, former president Eduardo Frei, simply promised more of the same. The situation is akin, in some ways, to the candidacy of John Kerry in the US elections in 2004 – an uninspiring figure leading a party that had lost its vision and purpose.
The country would certainly benefit from a multi-party democracy in which both the conservative and liberal parties maintained a strong commitment to human rights and a continued pursuit of justice for the crimes of the Pinochet years. But does Pinera promise that, or will his administration whitewash those misdeeds? Andres Oppenheimer offers reasons for optimism: “Pinera opposed former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the 1980s and has been pretty liberal on social issues. During the campaign, Pinera supported civil unions for gays.”
Time will tell, of course. But, at the very least, the pendulum has not swung back to the 1980s. Meanwhile, in a case of interesting timing, the NY Times ran a profile on Saturday on Ana Gonzalez, a long-standing voice for human rights in Chile and a participant in outgoing President Bachelet’s DNA-matching program. It’s an excellent profile, a reminder of how much has been done, and a symbol of hope that the momentum will carry things forward over the next four years.
I’ve compiled the following list of recommended resources as a starting point for educators attending my presentation at the AZAIS conference, but they really are advisable for anyone new to the field of transitional justice. This is, obviously, an incomplete list; I have limited my selections to works that I have read and consider to be of significant quality.
On Transitional Justice (General):
On South Africa’s TRC:
On the Rwandan Genocide:
On the Military Dictatorships of Chile and Argentina:
On the Guatemalan Genocide:
On El Salvador:
Websites for active Truth Commissions (again, an incomplete list):
Below the fold, you can find the scenarios I distributed in the workshop:
read more…
Interesting news stories on transitional justice from around the web…
From Kenya: Government, Kenya Human Rights Commission Disagree over ICC Investigation of Election Violence – When plans first surfaced in Kenya last summer for the creation of a Truth, Reconciliation, and Justice Commission, the primary debate centered on where responsibility would rest for the prosecution of those responsible for major human rights violations during the country’s post-election violence. Would the TRJC specifically have power over this, would a Special Tribunal within Kenya be created, or would it be outsourced/seized by the ICC? The TJRC was never a good option and the deadline for the Special Tribunal’s creation came and passed. Thus, the ICC has stepped in and is preparing to prosecute – a step generally acknowledged as a necessary development, if not an outright positive one. The Daily Nation profiled the major players in the ICC’s work in Kenya.
From Afghanistan: Mangled Shoes and Prayer Beads at Afghanistan’s ‘Holocaust Museum’ – While Afghanistan remains a long way from stability and even farther from the pursuit of justice for what has unfolded in that country throughout its recent history, the opening of this war crimes museum represents a clear step in the right direction. The level of chaos and violence that has plagued the country makes documentation one of the greatest challenges – how can the lives lost or victimized be recorded and how can justice ever be achieved for them? This collection of physical evidence and personal stories is a critical part of that process.
From Canada: New-Look Reconciliation Commission Settling into Winnipeg – While this is largely a rehash of the Canadian TRC’s struggles in getting off the ground, an important announcement comes at the end. The TRC’s first national meeting will take place in Winnipeg from June 15-19. This will be a critical moment for the commission – can it win a place in the national consciousness, or will it be another fumbled opportunity?
Earlier this year, a consulting group recommended the creation of a “legacy commission” in Northern Ireland to promote reconciliation and closure for the “Troubles” that plagued the country for most of the last four decades of the 20th century and remain a source of lingering tension today. A parliamentary committee, however, announced on December 15 that it had decided not to pursue that recommendation at this time.
The committee’s rationale moved in several directions, and the Belfast Telegraph did not do a particularly effective job of presenting that rationale. The story’s lead, that Northern Ireland is “not yet ready for a legacy commission to investigate its troubled and violent past,” suggests many possible underlying problems, including a lack of public buy-in for the concept. As the committee members explain, though, their concern in this area focused on redundancy, given that “bodies such as the Police Ombudsman and the Historical Enquiries Team [have] been carrying out fresh investigations into unsolved murders going back over 40 years.” In other words, the problem is not a lack of public will but a question of need – what would a new commission contribute and in what ways would it simply provide another layer of bureaucratic clutter?
That said, the committee did support exploring the consideration of the creation of a fund for victims and survivors. The consulting firm’s original suggestion – 12,000 pounds to the closest relative of every person killed in the conflict, regardless of political affiliation – was immediately shot down by the government. That will likely remain a sticking point as discussions proceed in this area.
An editorial from the same paper does a better job of unpacking the issues underlying the opposition to the legacy commission. Most importantly, the original recommendation called for amnesty-for-truth for those speaking in front of the commission, similar to what occurred in South Africa. It seems clear that the consulting firm, while promoting ideas recognized as valid by many in the field of transitional justice, called for too much, too soon, in a country that remains very much scarred by its past. In other words, the opening premise of the Belfast Telegraph’s article might actually speak the truth.
The question, as always, is at what point has the scab reached the point where its work is done and it can safely removed without aggravating the original wound. When is it in the best interests of a country to openly address the painful past and when will it only spark a return to instability?
On December 1, Liberia’s TRC issued its final report. It actually issued a “final” report in June as well – you can see our saturation coverage of the report here – but the report is really final now.
Among the mild changes from the “unedited” final report to this one is the addition of ten names to the “Most Notorious Perpetrators” list and five names to the economic crimes list. Critically, the commission did not change its stance on President Johnson Sirleaf, who remains in the group recommended for a 30 year banning from public office in Liberia. While she has expressed consistent public support for the commission and tried to publicly acknowledge her regrettable support for Charles Taylor, she has not formally apologized to the Liberian people and it is curious that nearly $500,000 in salaries and related funding has not been passed from the government to the TRC’s staff. And, despite that public support, it was announced in mid-December that President Johnson Sirleaf will stand for reelection in 2011.
Other prominent Liberians named in the report were more consistent in their views, condemning the commission’s work from all angles. Prince Johnson, one of the more infamous figures from the civil war, who still maintains political power in Liberia today, demanded that “the entire final report of the TRC be discarded.” Johnson – about whom there seems to be more compelling evidence of gross human rights abuses in the public record than almost any other Liberian – boldly declared, “They say I raped. Whom did I rape? Where is the evidence to prove that I raped. I never raped anybody in my life. Has the TRC brought forth my accusers to face me?” In the midst of his public posturing, he raised some potentially serious claims about the TRC Commissioner, John Stewart, who Johnson suggested was a member of the military group, the Black Beret, during the civil war.
Two components of the report that have received excellent reporting are the Historical Overview of the civil war and the call for the creation of a hybrid domestic/international court, similar to what was created in Bosnia, to address the worst crimes committed during the country’s civil war. Human Rights Watch endorsed the latter recommendation and offered a series of suggestions for the design and implementation, centered on narrowing the list of prosecutorial targets, the court’s composition, defining crimes, and fair trial standards.
While Brazil finally begins to address the validity of amnesty laws passed a generation ago, Argentina continues its pursuit of justice following its overturning of equivalent policies. December brought a major event in Argentine history, with 19 officials from ESMA, often described as the Argentine Auschwitz, put on trial. However, even as progress occurs, popular opinion seems to turn against it, as described in an extensive article by the Christian Science Monitor’s Sam Ferguson.
Part of the challenge in any transitional justice effort is maintaining the appearance of even-handedness and fairness. In almost every civil conflict, human rights abuses are committed by both sides; the specter of victor’s justice emerges if only one of those sides is prosecuted in the aftermath. Claims of this very problem have circulated in Argentina. Ferguson quotes a stock trader, who asserts that the trials are “totally political [and...] one-sided.”
In a separate article, published on Truthout, Ferguson profiles the most prominent figure on trial, the Blond Angel, Alfredo Astiz. Astiz infiltrated many groups of desaparecidos’ family members, including the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and then reported on their activities. Ultimately, “Astiz allegedly marked his victims with a kiss on the cheek, the traditional Argentine salutation, at which point intelligence agents waiting on the street stormed the meeting and kidnapped Astiz’s targets.”
The full article is well worth a read, providing an extensive overview of the full charges facing Astiz, his defense, and the general history of the attempts to prosecute him and other torturers from the military dictatorship. It concludes in a particularly chilling manner: “As Astiz was lead out of the courtroom, he looked toward the protesters on the other side of a wall of bulletproof glass. Seemingly unrepentant, he provocatively waved the book he had been guarding all afternoon. The title: ‘Volver a Matar’ (’Return to Kill’).”