March 12, 1996 — Sapa

PERPETRATORS SHOULD REPENT BEFORE RECEIVING AMNESTY: CHILEAN EXPERT

Perpetrators of human rights abuses appearing before the Truth Commission should be made to repent for their crimes before they were finally granted amnesty, the former executive director of Chile's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Prof Jorge Correa said on Tuesday.

“Amnesty is not used to justify human rights violations. It is a concrete reaction after the crime has been opened up and there has been some repentance on the part of the offender,” he told a press briefing.

Correa, a professor of law at the Diego Portales University in Santiago in Chile, said the process of healing and uncovering the truth did not end when the Truth Commission completed its 18-month term of office.

“How society accepts the truth and how it is going to be taught in schools is the start of another process.”

Although there were a number of similarities between the South African and Chilean commissions, this country's commission was more ambitious in its aims and what it hoped to achieve.

The Chilean commission – which completed its probe in 1991 – had dealt only with cases involving missing persons and known deaths, whereas the South African commission intended investigating a broader category of incidents involving “severe ill-treatment”.


© South African Press Association, 1996
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