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Foreign Policy
Summer 1999
Nothing but the Truth?
During the waning years of communism and the years after its fall, nearly a dozen truth commissions have been created to investigate human rights abuses committed by repressive, Cold War–era regimes. Although these commissions lack the power to prosecute (and in most cases, even publicly name) the guilty, they have examined thousands of cases of disappearances, torture, and death. The vast majority of the truth commissions have convened in Latin America. But human rights activists, government officials, and the United Nations have proposed establishing new ones around the world—from Ireland and Cambodia to the former Yugoslavia—perhaps signifying the beginning of a new global trend.
Argentina: The National Commission on the Disappeared (1984)—Created by former president Raul Alfonsin in 1983, the commission’s nine-month investigation documented the disappearance of 8,960 persons during the authoritarian military regime’s brutal campaign of repression from 1976 to 1983. Its report, translated into several different languages, was the first such truth commission report to receive international attention. Its findings led to court trials and convictions of members of the military junta and later contributed to a reparations program.
Chile: National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (1991)—Established by former president Patricio Aylwin (who took office in 1990 as Chile’s first democratically elected leader in two decades), the commission provided an in-depth account of 2,920 “disappearances” and murders under General Augusto Pinochet’s rule (1973–90). Its report lay the blame for these acts of violence largely on Chile’s armed forces and in part on the armed opposition. But a blanket amnesty granted to the military for virtually all offenses committed before 1978 (when most violations occurred) protects those responsible from prosecution.
El Salvador: The Commission on the Truth (1993)—Created by the 1992 United Nations–sponsored peace agreement in El Salvador, the commission investigated crimes by Salvadoran armed forces and death squads as well as the armed opposition during the country’s 12-year civil war. It drew global attention for its unprecedented decision to publish the names of high-level military and opposition members who were held responsible for specific cases of murder and “disappearances.”
Guatemala: Historical Clarification Commission (1999)—The commission received its mandate—to investigate human rights violations committed during 36 years of civil war, which claimed more than 200,000 lives—as part of a United Nations–supervised peace accord. Although prohibited from publishing the names of those responsible, the commission did make clear that culpability reached the highest levels of government. It also accused the armed forces of genocide—a crime that does not fall under an amnesty issued by the Guatemalan congress in December 1996—and condemned senior government officials for complicity. The commission’s findings prompted President Bill Clinton to apologize for America’s role in training and bankrolling the Guatemalan military.
South Africa: Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1998)—South Africa’s parliament passed a law in 1995 establishing a truth commission; retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu was appointed chair after a public selection process. The commission released its controversial, 3,500-page report this past October, levying sharp criticism at the white minority government in the apartheid era and nearly every group involved in the liberation struggle, including the African National Congress. Unlike other such commissions, it had the power to grant amnesty, but only to persons who were able to demonstrate that their offenses were politically motivated and who fully disclosed all they knew about the act.
—FP, with Priscilla B. Hayner