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World Forum: Brazil’s dictatorship torturers still unpunished
Criado em 11/12/13 20h06
e atualizado em 11/12/13 20h07
Por Carolina Sarres
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Brasília – Granting compensation for the victims of authoritarian regimes is an essential part of the fight on behalf of justice. Such is the conclusion reached by those who took part in the debate on Brazil’s transitional justice, held this Wednesday (Dec. 11), as part of the World Forum on Human Rights, in Brasília.
Transitional justice refers to the process of transformation from authoritarian and centralized regimes to democracy. In cases in which human rights are violated, such as torture, abduction and kidnapping, establishing a democratic regime entails the retrieval of the truth, the respect of people’s memories and the compensation for the victims.
According to Rosa Cardoso, a representative from the National Truth Commission, Brazil has emphasized the compensation for the victims, but has not charged those accountable for the crimes because of the Amnesty Law, which freed perpetrators indiscriminately. Cardoso is the head of workgroups that deal with the period of military dictatorship in Brazil, taking into consideration issues like political persecution and repression.
She explained that “the State wanted to buy the victims’ silence. There was inertia on society’s part towards examining, remembering, sentencing and punishing the brutality-stricken past. Only after much struggle were repair commissions created – like the National Truth Commission – with a focus on the role of families and relatives. Results are individual, and are achieved through work not unlike that of an artisan. This makes it necessary for victims and family members to be persistent and fight.”
Arnaldo Cardoso Rocha, former activist from the National Liberation Action (Portuguese: Ação Libertadora Nacional, “ALN”) is a case in point. According to the expert report presented at the forum on Wednesday (Dec. 11), he was murdered by officials during the dictatorship, in 1973. The official version of his death was that he had been shot in the crossfire with the police. After his remains were exhumed, it was proved that he had been tortured to death and shot over fifteen times.
In the opinion of the victim’s wife, Iara Pereira, the perpetrators are still unpunished; nor were the circumstances of his death ascertained.
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón stated that “The right to the truth, redress and non-repetition is a principle that must be followed. The protection of this right is still very much questioned. Some countries refuse to admit how real and urgent this principle is.”
The jurist became famous for defending victims of authoritarian regimes; he issued an arrest order against Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
According to Garzón, in the case of Latin America, the best instrument for the protection of human rights is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which has recently charged Brazil with the acts carried out during its military dictatorship, and ruled that the government must adopt a series of measures to clarify the facts and ascertain the whereabouts of those still missing. This is the context in which the Truth Commission was created.
Garzón added, “truth commissions are working, or will work, but there must be justice. The work of commissions and that of Justice should be complementary. The judicial system has to provide the answers to these questions and fulfill the role befitting it – or else it should be brought into question.”
In the case of the Brazilian commission, it is the judgment of Rosa Cardoso that the paradigm of not bringing to trial cases of human rights violations must be changed and the interdependence between truth and Justice – two of the four pillars of transitional justice – still lacks adjustments.
In Cardoso’s view, the Amnesty Law needs a fresh interpretation so that the perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed in Brazil between 1964 and 1985 can be sentenced. Over 50 thousand people are estimated to have been arrested for political reasons throughout the period.
Estela Carlotto, chairwoman of the Argentinian NGO Abuelas de Mayo (English: Grandmothers of May) also took part in the debate “Right to Memory, Truth and Justice”. She received a standing ovation from the audience and the members of the debating table.
The NGO demands information about grandchildren and children of those who went missing during the military period in the country, especially as regards what happened between 1976 and 1983. The organization estimates that around 30 thousand people have been murdered and 500 babies kidnapped.
Estela Carlotto said that “after being taken over by the pain of having a beloved relative kidnapped, instead of remaining quiet, weeping, scared, we went out to look for them. And it’s two generations we’re searching – we [grandmothers] are twice as motherly.”
She is the grandmother of a child born in an illegal jail. Her grandson has still not been found – he would be turning 35 this year. Carlotto added: “This fight, which deprives us of our lives and makes us give up our career and family, is a commitment that we want humbly to bequeath to the world, so that these stories no longer occur. Justice towards the guilty is not vengeance or hatred. It’s a right we cannot afford to forgo.”
Edited by Marcos Chagas / Lícia Marques
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
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