AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

massive, even collective, political crimes alone. Pillars [2] and
[3], both vertical, are needed. The State offers amnesty for
truth, with threat of punishment if truth does not come forward.
The hypothesis is that perpetrators fearing punishment will come
up with minimum truth, concealing and lying, and perpetrators
hoping for amnesty would offer maximum truth, including overdoing
it, hoping that more truth will translate into more amnesty. The
truth hurts, but liberates, cleanses the festering wound, prepares
for [1]. [2] is necessary, but not sufficient.
Pillar [3] comes as the crowning achievement, closing the
loop. The state adds to any restitution forthcoming from the
perpetrator (one does not exclude the other); and the victim, the
only one who can do so, closes the case with forgiveness. General
reconciliation, and they live happily ever after. Yes?
The net result of letting the truth prevail is supposed to be
reconciliation; a concept too complex to be accommodated in a
single bilateral relation. Here is one possible definition:
[4]Reconciliation=Closure in [1]+Closure in [2]+Closure in [3]/52/
But that means that all three "deals" have to come out right; a
difficult balancing act. The old justice deal is much simpler.
A woman, white, in connection with the TRC hearings:/53/
- I want the truth. I want to know who high up ordered these
atrocities! There cannot be any reconciliation without truth.
Another woman, black/54/, in connection with the hearings:
- No government can forgive. No commission can forgive.
Only I can forgive. And I am not ready to forgive.
We are dealing with horrendous crimes to the individual and
collective, human body, mind and spirit. And yet this new model is
basically P-V oriented; what matters is what happens in that
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