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Huma
n Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said yesterday he wanted to
create a truth and reconciliation commission for Iraq, modelled on
the experiences of post-apartheid South Africa.
Such a commission, "based on confessions and pardons, would be a
way to strengthen the feeling of national unity", Amin told AFP,
following his return from talks in Amman with UN agencies.
Chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa began hearings
in 1996 to shed light on apartheid-era atrocities.
The commission completed its work in 2003, after having compiled a
list of some 19 050 names of victims of gross human rights
violations under apartheid between 1960 and 1994.
Perpetrators of the crimes were given amnesties if they showed
remorse and fully disclosed the nature of their acts before the
commission, while victims were able to confront those responsible
for their pain.
Such a commission would allow victims to confront the perpetrators
of abuse under the regime of Saddam Hussein, while being "adapted
to the Iraqi reality", said the rights minister.
Amin said he also planned to set up rehabilitation centres for
victims of torture that would provide physical, psychological and
material assistance, adding he was seeking the aid of the United
Nations. – Sapa-AFP.
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