Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity, Priscilla B. Hayner. Routledge, 340 pages, $27.50.
In South Africa under apartheid, so many whites who benefitedfrom the system did not question the human costs--the deaths indetention, the forced removals of hundreds of thousands of their fellowcitizens, and the laws that demeaned and attacked the very dignity ofthe victims. In the years since apartheid ended, the work of SouthAfrica's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has ensured that SouthAfrican children will be taught about what happened in that dismal era.There will not be a "white history" and a "black history" but a commonhistory, one that has already emerged from the five-volume report of thetruth commission. Such a process, as the writer Michael Ignatieff hasobserved, can "narrow the range of permissible lies."
To an American audience, it may seem self-evident that suchcommissions are worthwhile. Yet in countries such as Indonesia,Cambodia, Colombia, and Bosnia, where truth commissions are beingconsidered, their role is controversial and their purposes poorlyunderstood. In Unspeakable Truths, Priscilla B. Hayner builds on a decade's worth of preeminent work in this field to dispel misconceptions. Her book is motivated by what she calls "a desire to clarify exactly what those bodies are; what they do and have the potential to contribute; and where their limitations lie."
She succeeds admirably. In lucid style, Hayner uses herinvestigations into 21 truth commissions to answer questions about thenature and value of truth seeking, the shape of reconciliation, thejustifiable constraints surrounding truth commissions, and theinteraction between truth and justice. I particularly enjoyed herexamination of the role of truth commissions in the healing process. Myown experience in investigating war crimes in South Africa, Bosnia,Rwanda, and Kosovo has convinced me that acknowledging human rightsviolations is an essential ingredient in enabling victims to beginhealing. But many well-meaning supporters of truth commissionsmisguidedly regard them as ends in themselves. They are only a startingpoint, as Hayner makes clear. They are a tool for exposing violations sofrequently committed in the dark--the torturing and disappearances thatwere committed with the intent to hide forever the identity of theperpetrators. They help construct an official and irrefutable history ofthe dark past.
Generalization about truth commissions, though, should be eschewed.Chile's National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in the early1990s differed substantially from the South African one that came later.The reach and powers of the commission in Chile were limited bypolitical, economic, and military powers. Such was not the case in SouthAfrica in 1994 and 1995 when the mission of its truth commission wasbeing debated. To take another example, what happened in the dark inChile and South Africa happened in the open in Rwanda. There weredenials and lies in the former, while there were boastful admissions inthe latter. Whether truth commissions have something new to tell thevictims depends on such contexts.
It's also important to recognize that truth commissions are not areplacement for criminal prosecutions and need not contradict them. "Onthe contrary," Hayner asserts, "commissions can, and probablyincreasingly will, positively contribute to justice and prosecutions,sometimes in the least expected ways." This has been the subject of muchcontroversy in Bosnia. Many nongovernmental organizations, in particularthe Inter-religious Council for Truth and Peace, have been pushing for atruth commission. They believe that the work of the United Nations'International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hagueis not touching the experiences of the great majority of the victims.
The office of the prosecutor of the UN tribunal has argued that thetaking of evidence by a truth commission would compromise witnesses andprejudice forthcoming trials. Those in favor of a Bosnian truthcommission argue for accommodations--and accept that, unlike in SouthAfrica, there can be no granting of amnesty. The primacy of the UNtribunal could be recognized as long as the prosecutor has the power todelay the evidence of particular witnesses or the airing of certainissues that might be the subject of investigations in The Hague. But ifthe truth commission is made to wait until after the trials, it will notlikely come into existence. The latest estimate from the office of theprosecutor is that trials will continue until 2008.
Such difficulties would seem not to bode well for truth commissionswhen the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) begins work. (TheICC will have jurisdiction to try war crimes when it is ratified by 60nations.) Nevertheless, Hayner suggests that the potential overlapbetween the ICC and national truth commissions could result in benefitsfor both. She advocates a symbiotic relationship in which commissionreports could help to focus ICC investigations, provide the ICC withlocal language resources, and even assist in determining whether a stateis "unwilling or unable" to investigate and prosecute a case--the testfor allowing the ICC jurisdiction over a particular defendant.
There are other fascinating and neglected issues relating to truthcommissions taken up by Hayner, such as the role of due process.Elementary fairness dictates the need for three basic guidelines: thatindividuals named in a report should be informed of the allegationsagainst them, that such persons should be given the opportunity torespond to that evidence, and that the commission should state clearlythat its conclusions about individual responsibility are not findings ofcriminal guilt. The latter is for the courts to determine.
She also considers the factors that encourage reconciliation. This isa matter currently being debated in South Africa, where allegations ofracist attitudes of black and of white South Africans still dominate themedia and will surely continue for some years to come. The question ofreparations is also much debated, with the South African governmentpromising to address it eventually. A final report by the Truth andReconciliation Commission will then be submitted to President ThaboMbeki.
When I first heard that Priscilla Hayner was writing this book, I hadhigh expectations. But given the many influential articles she haswritten on the subject, I wondered whether there would be something newfor her to say. My initial expectations have been met and my doubtsallayed: I learned much from Unspeakable Truths. It offers essential insight into how truth commissions might serve human rights and justice.
