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| ‘They
hadn’t forgotten, but they learnt to forgive’ As his story unfolds Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel-Prize winning human rights activist and chairman of the commission, is moved to tears. In another heart-rending account, the TRC is told about a young female freedom fighter who bravely covers her body - stripped of its clothes - with a plastic bag before being shot in the head and buried by her killers. Her body had decomposed before it was found but the plastic bag remained, testimony to her pathetic plight. According to Dr. Biki S.V. Minyuku, former CEO and Chief Accounting Officer of the TRC, there were worse and even more, gory cases that the commission heard during three years of work from 1996 to 1998. "There were families that were totally wiped out. There is no way you can express the emotions of those families," said Minyuku, currently Project Director of a state-run Criminal Justice Strengthening Programme. Perhaps one of the biggest achievements of the South African peace process was the ability of victims to forgive and not seek retribution for the brutal acts committed over a 30-year period mostly by the minority 'white' government. Minyuku, in Sri Lanka 10 days ago with a South African business peace mission, said there was the magnanimous spirit of South Africans who despite suffering gross human rights violations "dug deep into themselves to find within their minds and hearts and manifest a spirit of forgiveness”. "I am not saying they have forgotten but they were able to rise above the torture events to be able to forgive what they knew; who did what to them and why," he said. While the country at large listened and watched thousands of harrowing stories, the victims were to be provided with counselling services at the commission. "Being in a position of trust and privilege, one has to always be careful because in the commission we had to open wounds. We also had to heal ... as best and as close as possible. To be able to do that we had to provide counsellors who could counsel the victims... before the hearings, during the hearings and after the hearings," he said. The victims were not the only ones needing psychological and emotional support. The TRC staff too had a psychologist who counselled groups and had individual counselling for staff members. "For the commissioners too we provided a service. Remember everyday they listen to all these stories - it's nothing but death, maiming and calculated murder. Without a support system it would have been very difficult," the former TRC chief executive noted. The TRC wasn't prepared for the tales that unfolded before the commission -- which in many ways are lessons for Sri Lanka trying to end a bloody 21-year-old conflict. "All of us went into the commission with expectations but we didn't know the extent to which these people had suffered until we met with the victim. You hear these stories of how their loved ones have been harassed - could have been the father, the mother, the brother, the sister. It didn't end with that. Some families were totally wiped out." The commission received 22,000 statements claiming gross human rights violations of varying degrees of which 99 percent were found to be true. The TRC probe covered a period of 33 years and took three years to complete. The commission's work on amnesty was completed last year and the report handed over to the President of South Africa. It received about 7,200 amnesty applications from perpetrators including some ministers. Anyone who fully disclosed his or her actions was granted an amnesty. Did this personally cause Minyuku a lot of pain and grief? "It was traumatic because we had short time frames and I as CEO had to drive the process. I had to be dispassionate about all this and focus on achieving our goal.” Minyuku said he hadn't had time to reflect on those three years. "I told myself that between 1999 and 2003 I am not going to do anything but focus on myself, debrief myself and get back to normal before I could do anything. I have not talked about the truth commission between 1999 and 2003." There was little or no revenge sought in the peace process. There wasn't a single case where a former killer given amnesty was lynched or killed while walking on the street, Minyuku said. Minyuku described the case of former police captain Brian Mitchell who ravaged an entire community with his force. Many died at his hands. He confessed before the commission, related everything and said he was sorry. He didn't stop at that, indicating he wanted to go back to the community he ruined to try and rebuild their lives. Before that he met with community leaders and the families who welcomed him on board. Minyuku said there were many similar cases. Each time I recall the TRC experience through Minyuku, I am reminded of the pain and grief of thousands of families who lost their loved ones not only in the war for the northeast but also during the JVP revolt in 1988 and before. Would they ever be able to forgive ... like the victims in South Africa? Minyuku said that during the humane TRC process, a blinded victim proclaimed that "he could now see" while the family of a boy who disappeared buried their lost son's ball of fallen hair that they held on to for so long. The underlying message from the South African peace process irrespective of the differences with what we have here - a minority group fighting for their rights as against the majority being ruled by a minority there and no deadly guerrilla group in the form of the LTTE to contend with unlike in South Africa - is that the entire country was united towards one objective - seeking peace. If the rallying call in South Africa during the peace process was "we shall overcome", what should it be in Sri Lanka - "When will we ever learn?" |
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