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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Belgian Lumumba Commission: A Comparison |
Authors: | Verdoolaege, Annelies Kerstens, Paul |
Year: | 2004 |
Periodical: | Africa Today |
Volume: | 50 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | Spring |
Pages: | 75-92 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Belgium South Africa |
Subjects: | offences against human rights commissions of inquiry Law, Human Rights and Violence Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations History and Exploration |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v050/50.3verdoolaege.pdf |
Abstract: | One way a country can deal with a traumatic part of its history is by establishing an investigating commission. In South Africa in 1995, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to deal with the truth of the apartheid regime. In Belgium in 1999, the Lumumba Commission was put into place to research the circumstances of the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the independent state of Congo. The authors compare these commissions. By hinting at differences and similarities they try to discover an overall framework. They conclude that though each commission was specific in its own context, it appears that initiatives developed in completely different situations resemble each other. This shows that even two completely different countries, with different histories and dealing with events in different periods in different parts of the world, can arrive at similar solutions when trying to deal with problematic pasts. However, it is easier for some countries than for others to deal with the past - because of a whole range of practical and contextual circumstances. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |