Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said on Tuesday 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”, said Amin, following his return from talks in Amman with United Nations 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 about 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