TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 4

Chapter 3

Subsection 4

THE VICTIMS’ VOLUME (VOLUME SEVEN)

36. The Commission decided to prepare a summary of the experiences of each victim who came to the Commission, either through HRVC or the Amnesty Committee. The completion of this volume became one of the greatest challenges for the HRVC. Many dedicated people worked on creating the summaries and it took over three years to bring this project to fruition.

37. One of the rules adopted was that all summaries would have more or less the same number of words in order to ensure that no one person was perceived to be more important than another.

38. This project became a mission of love and devotion for those who worked on it. The passion of the summary writers and the pain they shared with victims as they wrote their stories is reflected in this volume. In time, it is hoped that it will become a living monument to those who suffered great pain and loss during the years of struggle. Volume Seven will endure in the nation’s memory for many years to come. It remains a major achievement of the HRVC.

REPORT ON DISAPPEARANCES

39. The Commission’s report on disappearances is contained in Chapter One of this section. Compiling this report took the better part of two years. The task required detailed research and the careful matching of information from a variety of sources including amnesty applications. The HRVC’s only human resources for this project were the two remaining researchers who worked extremely hard on compiling the cases for this report. They scanned through the Commission’s database, searching for all cases that dealt with the missing and the disappeared. In many instances, if the disappeared person was dead, the case would be classified as a political killing.

40. The Commission has made a number of recommendations with respect to unsolved disappearances. Many of these ‘best practices’ will be useful guidelines for the future. The recommendations are set out in Chapter 1 of this section.

REPORT ON EXHUMATIONS

41. The HRVC was also responsible for compiling a report on exhumations. This report appears in Chapter Two of the present section. A more comprehensive report has been compiled and will be handed to the Minister of Justice.

DATABASE

42. All the information collected by the HRVC was captured electronically on the Commission’s database. This includes testimony from victims’ statements, testimony taken at hearings, investigation material, transcripts of section 29 hearings, submissions made by institutions and individuals, and research and corroborative material. Original documents and other hard copy are held in the Commission’s archive, which is currently in the custody of the National State Archives.

43. This material represents one of the most remarkable archival collections in the country and belongs to the nation.

44. The Commission has recommended that the National State Archives be the custodian of this archive so that victims and future generations will be able to access it.

45. It is thus important that the material be stored in a way that is accessible to scholars and to the families of victims. For example, the Commission was simply unable to go back to each victim or family that made a statement to inform them of the results of their investigations. By accessing the archives, families will be able to obtain this information.

46. It is therefore important that victims, their families and victim groups be consulted about how to make the Commission’s material accessible in a way that does not undermine the integrity of individuals, be they victims or perpetrators. The privacy of victims should also be respected and taken into account when dealing with access.

47. The HRVC concerned itself mainly with victims and their right to know the truth. In the course of its work, it discovered different kinds of truth. It discovered too that truth must be tempered with justice and compassion.