•  rio de janeiro
• Friday, October 21, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The bill to establish a National Truth Commission in Brazil, which has made it through the lower house of Congress and is now in the Senate, is considered at least a start in clarifying, and preventing a repetition of, the abuses committed during the country's 21-year dictatorship.

For some the commission, or CNV, that was approved by a Senate committee on Wednesday Oct. 19 is a watered-down or weak version of what is really needed, while others see it as the best that can be achieved at this time.

The CNV will not have the power to punish those responsible for human rights violations committed during the 1964-1985 de facto regime, and its conclusions will not give rise to court cases. That is because of the 1979 amnesty law, which covers all cases of torture, forced disappearance and murder committed by the dictatorship, as well as crimes by left- wing guerrillas active during that period.

But the simple fact that the truth commission was created 'represents a step forward with relation to Brazil's failure to act on this issue before,' said political analyst Mauricio Santoro of the Getulio Vargas Foundation. During the dictatorship, 475 people were forcibly disappeared, 50,000 imprisoned, and at least 20,000 tortured, according to official figures.

Although it will be 'less far-reaching' than similar truth commissions created in Argentina , Chile or Peru , 'it is very important with respect to the gathering of information on Brazil's recent history, and the recognition of the importance of preserving the memory of resistance to the dictatorship,' Santoro told IPS.

The CNV will cover the period from 1946 to 1988, despite pressure from human rights groups and the families of victims of the dictatorship, who want it to merely apply to the 21-year dictatorial regime, in order to avoid a dispersion of efforts.

Aton Fon, a lawyer with the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights , said that is a weak point of the CNV, because the period covered is very broad for a commission of just seven members and 14 advisers, that will not even have its own budget, 'which will compromise the quality of the work to some extent.'

In an interview with IPS, Fon said the period covered by the commission was extended as the result of an attempt to 'play down the seriousness of the human rights violations committed by state security agents during the dictatorship.

'To avoid saying that only the military committed human rights abuses, the idea is to examine the entire history of Brazil,' lamented the lawyer, who attributed 'the government's backtracking' that led to the creation of a limited CNV to pressure from sectors of the military.

Another criticism is that the current format of the CNV opens up the possibility that it could include members of the military, even though the security forces were 'directly involved in the repression' and serious violations like forced disappearance, secret graves, torture, and the suppression of documents, Fon said.

That participation, the activist said, would bring legal problems, because the military are subject to a strict hierarchy. 'We would see problems like having a member of the military on the commission summoning a superior to give his testimony, and in the face of possible refusal, having to respect his decision,' he said.

Another criticism is that one article of the bill creating the CNV determines that 'the secret information and documents provided to the commission cannot be divulged or put at the disposal of third parties.'

Another article states that the activities of the CNV will be public except in cases in which it determines that 'maintaining confidentiality is relevant to achieving its goals or to safeguarding the privacy, honour or image of individuals.'

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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