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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 by the black-majority government of President Nelson Mandela to investigate crimes committed during the nearly five decades of apartheid
ALSO: Full text of truth commission report Truth commission finds fault on all sides Posted October 28, 1998

By Kim Cloete
South African Broadcasting Corporation

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- When Archbishop Desmond Tutu was chosen as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in early 1996, he embarked on a journey that would take him through South Africa's heart of darkness.

As more than 20,000 people gave evidence of human rights abuses, mostly perpetrated during the apartheid era, stories of torture, loss and sorrow spilled out from the different corners of South Africa.

Many who came forward spoke of their grief openly for the first time. "They risked opening wounds that were perhaps in the process of healing," Tutu said in the commission's final report.

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Mothers wept when they talked of sons who were beaten to death by former security forces. Others grieved over relatives who disappeared without a trace, while some spoke of their sadness after bombs planted by both the right and left wings had left people killed and maimed.

In the subsequent amnesty hearings, perpetrators tried desperately to justify their actions.

But while many South Africans feel it has been essential for victims of atrocities to tell their stories, others say the process has caused almost as much division as healing.

"It was almost expected for victims to forgive their perpetrators. But many of them were angry and frustrated and did not simply want to wish the pain away," says Graham Simpson of the Johannesburg-based Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Although many perpetrators apologized for their actions, in terms of the law there was no onus on them to express remorse. Many members of the former security forces insisted during amnesty hearings that they were fighting a just war.

"At the end of the day, the commission made the process more about perpetrators than about the victims and survivors," says Simpson, who has worked with many of the people who appeared before the commission.

The commission has also uncovered much of what has happened in the apartheid era.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission poster

"Future generations will appreciate the value of the TRC," says TRC Commissioner Denzil Potgieter. "A lot of the widows and people who lost relatives said they were satisfied enough with hearing the truth behind the atrocities. In that way, it was extremely powerful. It made a huge contribution to society."

But Ami Jaichand, director for Lawyers for Human Rights, stresses that the commission has to be seen as "more than a psychological exercise. ... It has to be seen as more than something that we as a nation were wrapped around and then quickly forgot."

But many people are pinning their hopes on Tutu, who has drawn widespread support in South Africa. He has repeatedly said he's determined that the victims and survivors who were prepared to tell their stories should not be forgotten and that the process has already opened the door for reconciliation.

And he stands by his conviction spelled out in the commission's final report that "however painful the experience has been, we remain convinced that there can be no healing without truth."

Kim Cloete is a senior journalist and producer for the South African Broadcasting Corporation and a contributor to CNN World Report.