Chileans are advised of presidential laws and decrees in the daily journal Diario Oficial. The issue of February 8, 1992 published a milestone in the campaign for human rights, not only in Chile, but in the wider world, with Law 19.123 creating the National Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation. This temporary, decentralised state body under the Ministry of the Interior was given a two-year mandate to ensure compensation to the families of the victims of human rights violations in Chile, as well as promoting programmes aimed at fostering a future human rights culture.

The Corporation was the direct outcome of work done by the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. This eight-man commission, appointed by President Patricio Alwyn on May 9, 1990, worked unstintingly through nine unpaid months and 100 working sessions to complete the work on schedule and present its findings. Exhaustive documentation was forthcoming on cases of death by execution, undue force, torture, murder and disappearance after arrest during the period from September 1973 (the fall of President Salvador Allende's government) to March 1990 (the end of the Pinochet regime and the inauguration of President Alwyn). The commission members defined their task as being "to come to a comprehensive grasp of the truth of what had happened, for it was utterly necessary to do so in order to bring about reconciliation among Chileans" (Report: 891). The resultant Informe de la Comision Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliacion covers the political, legal and judicial conditions that allowed such extensive and serious human rights violations.

The English version of the work is the two-volume Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. Translated by Phillip E. Berryman, a Latin American specialist, with an introduction by Jose Zalaquette, one of the commission members, the Report was published by the the Centre of Civil and Human Rights at Notre Dame Law School and supported by the Ford Foundation. The lack of an index for those readers unfamiliar with Chilean politics and history is more than adequately compensated for by a special introduction to the English translation, an extensive listing of contents, extra footnotes complementing endnotes to the original text, and a full explanation of acronyms. All this makes this monumental work easy to follow, though not easy to read: "The results of what took place during this period and to which extent remain with us, cry out in sorrow from every page of this report" note the commission members (Report: 893); certainly the detailed accounts of the organisation and methods of the perpetrators of human rights violations, with special mention given to torture, and the verbatim testimony of the relatives of the victims in the chapter on "Impact of the most serious human rights violations on families and social relations" leave the reader in no doubt that "Chile has undergone a wrenching tragedy" (Report: 892).

Dr Alex Boraine has noted that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), although shaped very much by local history and circumstances, follows on similar experiences in both Eastern Europe and South America. He lists them as follows:

• A shift from totalitarianism to a form of democracy;
• A negotiated settlement - not a revolutionary process;
• A legacy of oppression and serious violations of human rights;
• A fragile democracy and a precarious unity;
• A commitment to the attainment of a culture of human rights and a respect for the rule of law;
• A determination that the work of the commission will make it impossible for the gross violations of human rights of the past to happen again.

on the attitude of the man in the street towards this denial:
"These denials were largely believed by most of its civilian supporters (many of them probably preferred not to know for sure)...At the most they would believe that the real extent of the abuses was far less than what was reported by domestic and international human rights organizations and by the foreign press";

on subversion:
"The military government always insisted that it had been waging a war, albeit an unorthodox one, against an insidious, subversive enemy";

on violent opposition:
"Some opposition groups justified the resorting to armed resistance on the grounds that they were fighting a tyrannical government."

and on suffering:
"As it travelled through the country, the commission systematically took note of the harm done to the victims' families, both in order to make it known, and so that this information might serve as the basis for reparation measures" (Report: 777).

The reader finds here loss and grief; death that remains unexplained; unresolved mourning; prolonged uncertainty and waiting; the search for the 'disappeared'; the need to know the truth, the denial of hope; family life disrupted...

"I need to know why they killed him; what happened, what he was doing, how they caught him. Anything to put my mind at ease..."

"My wound had to heal before being cleansed. I know he was killed, but they never returned his body to me. The mourning period is still going on..."

"If they had just killed him outright it wouldn't be so hard. But since you know they tortured them and don't know what they did to him, your imagination torments you more than the death itself..."

Does this not echo much of the testimony at the South African hearings?

What is striking is this chapter, and indeed, throughout the whole Report, is the emphasis by those testifying on the need to build the future, on the wish for truth and justice, rather than for revenge. As one testifier says, "Let us hope that Chile wants the truth, and that it's not just a matter of the president appointing a special commission, but that all Chileans may want and seek the truth."

Herein lies the essence of the work of the commission, and its contribution, through this Report, to our TRC process. Certainly, the reparation measures consequently adopted by the National Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation on the strength of the Report - such as pensions, fixed sum payments, psychological counselling for the families of victims and educational benefits - are important and necessary steps towards restorative justice, and could well be adopted here. Equally important is the recommendation for programmes to promote a future human rights culture. But more than this, South African society needs to acknowledge its own 'wrenching tragedy', to admit and want and seek the painful truth, before there can be any hope of true reconciliation. It is hoped that the TRC will produce a similarly incisive and empathetic report, to be made available to all South Africans, so that they too can "know the truth, that the memory of their loved ones [will] not be denigrated or forgotten, and that such terrible things [will] never happen again" (Report: xxxiii).

Sally Schramm is the librarian at CCR.

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