November 30, 1995 STATEMENT by ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
November 30, 1995 STATEMENT BY ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU ON HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION It is a very great privilege and honour to have been appointed as the head of the Commission, and I am deeply humbled. The membership of the Commission appears to represent a fair spectrum of South African society, and comprises people who have special gifts to bring to the sensitive task of contributing to the healing process in our country. I appeal to South Africans and people around the world to uphold members of the Commission in their prayers, because the healing and reconciliation of a deeply traumatised and wounded people is a deeply spiritual exercise. I hope that the work of the Commission, by opening wounds to cleanse them, will thereby stop them from festering. We cannot be facile and say bygones will be bygones, because they will not be bygones and will return to haunt us. True reconciliation is never cheap, for it is based on forgiveness which is costly. Forgiveness in turn depends on repentance, which has to be based on an acknowledgement of what was done wrong, and therefore on disclosure of the truth. You cannot forgive what you do not know. The purpose of the Commission in terms of the act which establishes it is to assist in the process of healing and reconciliation. The Commission needs to be geared towards the victims of human rights abuses rather than the perpetrators. I would like us to concentrate on the rehabilitation of victims and restoration of their dignity, emphasising restitution rather than retribution and reprisal.
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