Special Report Transcript Episode 80, Section 7, Time 49:36

If you look at some of the more prominent examples of these kinds of Truth Commissions in Latin America for example, you have both examples where commissions were set up through presidential decree, in Chile and Argentina both. And one thing about that model is that because they are set up through a presidential decree and not through national legislation they weren’t able to take on certain powers, such as the power to subpoena, which has become so important to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here. But they only had powers to invite people, either perpetrators or victims, or families of the disappeared to come forward and give testimony. Unfortunately in both Chile and Argentina they primarily took evidence from families of the victims and not from perpetrators. They had almost no collaboration from perpetrators which is strikingly different from South Africa. This is really the only case, because of the amnesty model that has been set up here, where in exchange for the truth amnesty might be granted. So because of that there has been a reason for perpetrators to come forward and tell the exact truth about what they did. And people often say, why don’t we have trials instead and it’s not an either or, actually. There’s examples such as in Argentina where the commission on the disappeared, when it closed its doors, it handed its files directly to the prosecutor’s office and that led to the trial of the leadership of the military regime and put a few persons in jail. And that came directly from the information from the commission, for example. Even if you look at South Africa, some trials certainly would have been possible. I think it’s already been clear as to the limitations that those trials would confront in those that we have seen here. But in addition to that there’s a certain amount of truth that comes from a trial and it certainly isn’t the full truth, it can’t be the broad truth, you can’t cover 35 years of repression, you can’t look at the systematic nature of violations behind be it apartheid for example.

Notes: Priscilla Hayner (International TRC expert); Chile (film footage); Public Violence; Pinochet; Argentina (film footage)

References: there are no references for this transcript