MANILA, Philippines?Truth commissions were also set up in other countries that had just emerged from regimes ?marked by grave and serious violations of human rights.?

South Africa

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed in South Africa after Nelson Mandela and his party, the African National Congress (ANC), won the general elections in April 1994.

The commission was intended to heal the wounds caused by apartheid, the official state policy from 1948 to 1992, under which nonwhite South Africans were denied basic political rights, freedom of movement and assembly, and access to education and health care.

One of the pressing issues was whether the past government should be granted amnesty for crimes committed during the apartheid era. ANC pushed for accountability for all crimes.

The government of Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years, introduced the ?Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Bill? in Parliament, which provided for amnesty for politically motivated offenses but required that it be granted to those who had fully disclosed their crimes and proved that these were indeed politically motivated.

The truth commission headed by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu had three committees to deal with amnesty, human rights, and rehabilitation and reparations.

The work of Tutu?s commission lasted for nearly three years.

The human rights committee alone received testimony from some 20,000 persons.

In the end, the commission?s final report had 250 separate recommendations, which included financial reparation to victims and the construction of public memorials commemorating their sufferings, among others.

It was delivered in October 1998 to Mandela, who apologized to the victims on behalf of the South African government in a moving speech.

But according to TruthCommission.org, a collaboration of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Search For Common Ground and European Center for Common Ground, there has been ?lack of political support? for the commission?s final report and recommendations, and no recommendation has been translated into legislation to date.

Argentina

The National Commission on Disappeared Persons was established in Argentina in 1983, after the election of Raul Alfonsin as president.

General elections followed the defeat of the Argentine military, which seized power in a coup d?etat in 1976.

During their reign, the Argentine armed forces conducted a campaign aimed at wiping out guerrillas and terrorists. It resulted in the killing and disappearance of 10,000 to 30,000 people.

The commission, which had prominent human rights defenders as members, was formed ?to investigate the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared, and to produce a report to [Alfonsin].?

It was able to hire staff and had access to government facilities, but lacked subpoena power.

It documented almost 9,000 disappearances, but because of its inability to compel evidence and the destruction of military documents, it offered families and friends of the disappeared very little new information.

In July 1984, after six months of work, the commission presented a two-hour synopsis of testimonies on national TV.

Two months later, it submitted its final report to Alfonsin, which included 50,000 pages of documentation, as well as a list of all military personnel believed to have been involved in the disappearances and the use of torture.

A summary of the report, ?Nunca Mas,? was sold to the public and became an instant bestseller.

Nine of the top junta leaders were brought to trial and five of them were found guilty.

In 1990, Congress passed a law granting a pension equal to 75 percent of the lifetime salary of the disappeared to the next of kin, and evidence presented to the commission was used to allow families access to this pension fund.

In 1991, another law providing for compensation of persons who were detained without trial between 1976 and 1979 was passed. But most have been unable to claim the money because they could not present proof on the length of their detention, with the military unwilling to provide documents.

Chile

When Patricio Aylwin won the 1989 Chilean elections and took office in 1990, he created the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation aka the Rettig Commission.

Aylwin won in the general elections that followed a plebiscite on Gen. Augusto Pinochet?s continued rule. Pinochet overthrew then President Salvador Allende in a coup d?etat in 1973; his forces were responsible for some 1,200 deaths or disappearances in the violence that marred the first three months following the coup.

In the ensuing years, Pinochet?s forces prevented opposition and used harassment, torture, killing, and forced disappearance as tools.

The commission was tasked to provide an overview of how the repressive system worked, to account for every person who died or disappeared between September 1973 and March 1990, to propose measures of reparations and of prevention.

It was given nine months to finish its work.

But the commission was also unable to compel testimony as it did not have subpoena power. The document that created it also stated that it had no judiciary powers and was ?purely an information-gathering instrument.?

The commission heard the testimonies of more than 4,000 persons. A few military men also testified.

But it was unable to name those responsible for the crimes and uncovered very little new information about the disappeared.

The commission?s report detailed cases of more than 2,000 persons killed by government forces, and more than 100 victims of left-wing violence. But because it only addressed human rights violations resulting in death, it was unable to provide information on the estimated 200,000 victims of gross human rights violations, most of whom were not even given the opportunity to testify.

Aylwin apologized to the victims and their families on behalf of the state in 1991. He sent a letter to each family apologizing for the crimes, along with a copy of the report.

The report called for reparations for the victims, including legal and administrative aid, financial support for education, medical care and psychological services, and symbolic reparations such as public monuments or parks.

In 1992, a law providing financial support to the families of all the victims named in the report was passed. Some military officers were held responsible for the crimes, and a few were jailed.

In 1999, five senior military officers were tried for their role in the disappearance and probable death of 75 political prisoners.

Sources: Inquirer Archives, TruthCommission.org