A theological view of impunity

Charles Harper

There is not a day that goes by without a sharp reminder, in the public media, of the theme of accountability for past actions, the need for some form of justice to be reached and reconciliation achieved. Need we go further than to evoke the intense public debate over the Swiss banks' and government's policies towards Jewish refugees and gold of suspect origin fifty years ago? The sense of growing impatience over NATO's unwillingness to arrest and extradite the dozens of indicted war criminals in former Yugoslavia for trial? Japan's continuing refusal, fifty years after the fact, to apologize formally and compensate for its kidnapping of 200,000 Korean and other Asian young rural women for the sexual needs of its imperial troops? The trial in France of the second top official of the Vichy government, Maurice Papon? The woeful and contested resources placed by the UN at the disposal of its international court set up to judge the Rwanda genocide?

If I begin my remarks with a reference to these crucial issues, it is because any theological approach to the human rights issue of justice, and specifically to impunity, cannot be taken separately from the profound crises affecting societies and the churches.¹ Questions facing them are as relevant, and critical, as those which faced generations - and theologians - of the past.² Should societies that live through periods of serious human rights violations turn the page completely and pardon all those who bear responsibility in order to restore "peace" and stability? Can true reconciliation be achieved in societies where a culture of impunity continues to prevail?³ Such dilemmas of import in the "real world" do not make the task of theology lighter.⁴

My remarks are intended as well to underline the terrible proximity of the past which we have inherited, and to highlight the stubborn global longevity of official violence in all its forms. Succeeding generations, in society and in the churches, are being constantly challenged to ferret out and make known the full truth of past acts so morally repugnant and ethically unacceptable that they require justice. Knowing the truth, that truth as experienced by the victims and requiring an accounting of it, affirms that which constitutes the hope of the human rights struggle: a re-emergence of ordinary and extraordinary women and men who constantly spring up in each generation to work for justice and human dignity. They are the backbone of the human rights struggle. The theological task consists, in this view, of taking seriously into account the search for truth, the achieving of justice, and the hopeful expectations of and the integrity of those who do it.

Finally, allow me a personal word here. This paper is the fruit of encounters, actions, solidarity and reflection over the past twenty-five years with dozens of people who have been intimately involved in the human rights struggle - some of whom have become close friends - mostly in Latin American and the Caribbean. It is necessarily subjective. It grows out of a personal conviction that a Christian, indeed inter-religious, ethic must be formulated, and a theological position collectively developed, among the churches and movements at the heart of the human rights struggle for reconciliation with justice, so that their experiences in one region may serve as a stimulus and guidance to those elsewhere. If I may identify an important moment when the idea gained strength, it was when I met Brigalia Bam, then General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, in Strasbourg, in 1994. We had both been asked to address the question of torture, accountability and the responsibility of the churches, at a conference organized by FI-ACAT.⁵ She spoke on the South African experience. I spoke from a perspective of the experience of international ecumenical solidarity in Latin America. Would it not be useful, indeed important, to learn from each other's history and insights? Should there not be an attempt for people involved in the struggle for justice, to formulate those ethical and theological principles which gave them life, and hope for the future? What are the criteria of faith, in achieving reconciliation within our deeply divided societies?

A provisional evaluation of the relatively recent work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission⁶ immediately draws attention to other geographical regions and historical moments where crimes against humanity (such as torture, mass executions, or the forced disappearance of people) were perpetrated.⁷

With this in mind, a number of men and women in six Latin American countries were approached immediately, to challenge them to begin such work. The present paper attempts to some degree to reflect the consensual conclusions of what became a two-year enterprise by the six teams. The full articles and conclusions of the Latin American case studies were published recently by the WCC and are reflected here.⁸ The authors draw deliberately upon the deep well-springs of their faith and the tenets of their juridical or medical ethos. Some articulate their convictions biblically - such as looking at the dynamic nature of truth as contained in the Jewish heritage. Others drew upon sources of juridical integrity and universality of norms. Still others approach impunity of the torturers as being a major debilitating source of medical disorder, causing irreparable damage to their victims.

A bit of history: getting away with murder

In the Latin American context, thirty years ago the region became a killing field of incipient democracies favouring social experiment and fresh proposals for solving the endemic poverty of the majorities of urban and rural poor. Violent military or military-inspired coups d'état then inaugurated a systematic practice of the detention, torture and disappearance of thousands of people across the hemisphere. Beginning in Paraguay and Guatemala in 1954, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean, followed. Military regimes attempted to impose oblivion, indeed to erase the identity, family heritage and the very existence of their victims, as well as the ideals cherished by their generation'.⁹

The repression

For their peoples, appalling decades followed. The National Security Doctrine was instilled into a new caste of Latin American military élite by United States Army training schools, fostering the systematic practice of torture, killings, detention and the forced disappearances of thousands of people across the hemisphere. Most forms of modern repressive methods of individual and collective rights were then standardized. Clandestine movements, students, labour unions, opposition political parties and professionals were harassed, persecuted and eliminated. Those who raised their voices, including many in the churches and movements, were silenced. Tens of thousands of people were detained and disappeared. Many more were tortured. Summary execution in hidden centres of detention became ordinary. Heavy massacres, especially among isolated villages, occurred.

How the churches responded

Many members of the Christian communities and congregations were themselves directly affected by military repression, and are found among the victims. These included some courageous ordained and lay leadership, both Catholics and Protestant evangelicals. The most targeted by official and clandestine were those who spoke out and who identified with the poor.?

With military take-overs, these people got organized quickly. Small groups of men and women - sometimes, but not always, supported by their church leadership - had to carry out immediate, urgent tasks to protect individuals and families. They devised imaginative ways to assist people to obtain asylum in embassies or across dangerous borders. They identified places where missing people were detained, gathered meticulous information on the nature of violations - and denounced publicly reports of torture occurring there, while attempting to keep alive hope among their own and, with others, among the public at large under often extremely restrictive circumstances. Many of that generation were killed for their convictions. Others died for their testimony and for their defence of the dispossessed. All gave fresh vitality to a redeemed Church - on the condition that she spoke the truth and practised justice. That generation of Christians paid and is still paying a heavy price for its commitment, organized and worked for a return to democracy and to the rule of law.

A return to formal democracy

Gradually formal democratic rule was restored in these countries from the mid-eighties to the present. However, the open wounds of severe repression remained unhealed for significant sectors of the populations.¹⁰ The political class expressed the need to move on, to assure political stability, to achieve a superficial reconciliation of the body politic as well as society. This included the attempt to wipe clean all evidence of previous repressive actions by creating a new vocabulary. One author analyses this tactic with lucidity.¹¹ Furthermore, formal amnesty laws were decreed and subsequently passed in the legislative bodies of eight of these countries.¹² Legal impunity is now fomenting a culture of impunity.

But what is impunity?

Impunity means the absence of punishment. According to the United Nations rapporteur on impunity, Louis Joinet, impunity covers "all the measures and practices whereby, on the one hand, states fail in their obligations to investigate, try and sentence those responsible for violations of human rights and, on the other hand, impede the enjoyment by victims and their families of the right to know the truth and have their rights restored".¹³ In terms of scope, the word impunity is used solely in reference to violations of a grave, systematic and massive nature.

From the point of view of the victims and their families, impunity is seen to be a status, or the means by which people accused of crimes against humanity escape being charged, tried and punished for criminal acts committed with official sanction in time of war or dictatorial rule.

Thus, thousands of perpetrators of such violations in specific countries have escaped being charged, tried and punished for such acts, either by way of amnesty laws passed by a government under whose authority the acts were committed, or by a successor elected government unwilling or unable to resist the powerful influence of the armed or security forces. Mass criminals have benefited, in other words, from impunity and to this day remain unaccountable for their acts.

South Korea, Japan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Rwanda, fifteen LA countries, and many other countries have this in common: there can be no genuine peace, nor lasting reconciliation among significant sectors of their societies unless the perpetrators of gross and systematic human rights violations are brought to justice. Furthermore, the full rehabilitation of the victims of torture and other crimes against humanity, can only occur when impunity is deliberately and vigorously resisted. Nor can any hope for the healing of society be nourished without an end to the practice of impunity.

The aftermath of repression:
A search for justice on the road to reconciliation

In countries today, there is an enormous task to heal wounds, bridge divisions, build stability, achieve economic justice, engender conviviality, and to promote peace: in other words, to reconcile the unreconcilable, make possible the impossible. Human rights groups, ecumenical teams, and a diaspora of churches in Africa, Europe and Latin America are attempting to do just that.

They are faced with formidable obstacles: a collective temptation to forget the pain of the past, an untouched military caste, entrenched economic interests, an accommodating church hierarchy, fragile democratic institutions, rampant consumerism, if you are rich, and the daily struggle to survive, if you are poor.

People are taking a fresh look at the close link between the resistance to impunity, and the healing of society. It has profound implications for the pastoral concerns of the churches. One such perspective started with a small group of women health professionals in Chile. Faced with the daunting task of shepherding hundreds of torture victims under the Pinochet regime back into a modicum of normality, these psychologists, therapists and neuro-psychiatrists rapidly moved from individual treatment to a diagnosis of the entire community.

This mental health group maintains that the state of impunity in Chile not only violates the juridical and ethical norms which keep a society cohesive and functional, but that it constitutes the main obstacle to full reconciliation. Their conclusions were reached empirically through patient and painstaking therapy with over one thousand women (and some men) over a ten-year period - people who had endured torture in its various diabolical forms, in secret detention centres, police headquarters, prisons and army camps.¹⁴ Based on their findings, contained in the book recently published by the WCC,¹⁵ the authors of the study assert that the presence of impunity becomes "a mechanism of disturbance capable of provoking mental disorders which are at least as serious as those produced by torture itself". Added, they continue, to the traumatic consequences of the pain, suffering, loss, bereavement and helplessness experienced, "impunity attacks major human values, destroys beliefs and principles and alters the norms and rules that humankind has gradually built up over time".

Moving beyond the effects of impunity upon the individual victims, these women therapists detail in harrowing clarity the sequels of such impunity as felt in the family (insecurity, denial of feelings, despair, social isolation, marginalization, distrust of those around them, withdrawal from political life, and the absence of plans for the future).

Finally, they describe the effects of impunity in and upon society, the level where the breakdown of ethical standards and behaviour becomes most visible, most public and thus most evident - i.e. in the multiplication of social pathologies, the disintegration of communal life, withdrawal, miscommunication, the perpetuation of lies, fear, violence and the exacerbation of structural justice. "With impunity, the whole structure of civil responsibility has collapsed beyond repair, producing a dissociated communal life in society: knowing yet concealing; being informed but keeping quiet; wanting to forget yet remembering; seeking good but doing wrong; wanting to be conciliating, and rebelling."¹⁶

The impact of such a description, taken from only one specific case in a small Latin American country, becomes all the more powerful when magnified by what is being reported in any number of societies today. It constitutes a major challenge to the church, in its pastoral and prophetic mission.

A need for a theological word

Out of the historical experience of the churches in these situations, not only an opportunity, but a responsibility, arose to affirm the bases of the requirements for achieving reconciliation in their societies. The authors of the reflection contribute to this task. These lay people, clergy and religious who were deeply involved in the human rights struggle, have begun to articulate six prerequisites for genuine reconciliation. These themes find strong resonance in the theological understanding of God's design, the nature of the redeeming community, the brokenness of humanity and the yearnings for a hopeful future.

Prerequisites to reconciliation

From these contemporary Latin American reflections, six strong themes emerge. They are seen by the authors, from different perspectives, as the milestones along the path to reconciliation in their societies.

The importance of preserving memory

Here we refer to the collective memory of our people, of a knowledge of a history which is not only institutional, but from "below", as that experienced in flesh and blood by those who live in the nation. Several steps are implied here: doing everything possible to ferret out, research and systematize the past contributions made by, as well as the injustice done to, the peoples in and of our nation. This will include the violations which were perpetrated against our peoples. This knowledge is to become assimilated, and becomes in turn part of the acknowledged consciousness of the community. And, finally, it will be commemorated regularly as part of the national heritage. It will become part of the political culture, influencing perspectives and decisions. Reports, truth commissions, monuments, marches, church services and memorial days - all of these produce and stimulate memory.

The covenant between God and the people, as developed in the Bible, provides the framework for a dynamic memory, a memory which is at once an ethical reference point and a source of renewal. The covenant of Sinai/Horeb is a paradigm of God's covenant with the chosen people. As well as declaring the people's commitment to God, the covenant includes a series of rules for human society (...) Linguistic studies indicate that the original meaning of the Hebrew word (berith) carries the sense of "maximum security".¹⁷

It thus provides a framework, and a model, of relationship between the ruler and the ruled, and guarantees a historic faithful relationship which must be remembered, respected and celebrated. "Dictatorships do not enter into covenants ... (and) the covenant of the law on immunity from prosecution is a covenant of death."¹⁸

The need for the truth to be told

The biblical heritage points the way to a truth which frees from lies and frees to transform. One of the authors reminds us that the "Jewish view of the truth has influenced the faith since its beginnings. The (OT Hebrew) word emeth has two meanings: one dimension is that of trustworthiness or reliability. The other is its contingent, historical character."¹⁹ For Christians, the truth (Word), become flesh and historical. It frees the church from complicity in institutional lying which legitimizes corrupt power, and frees it to be a protagonist in the quest for truth.

The implications of these prerequisites, to make the truth a living instrument of national memory and freedom to act for a new democracy, was taken seriously by a small group of men and women in Brazil, with devastating effect.²⁰

The truth must be known and reknown. Many Nunca Mas! (Never Again!) books were meticulously prepared and published, often against great odds, in Latin America. It was a deliberate strategy decided upon early on in the 1970s, to keep the record of repression, to maintain alive the names, and histories, of those who "disappeared", as living contributors to the wealth of the nation. Some, as in Paraguay, were produced clandestinely, by church groups. Others, by government-appointed commissions, as in Chile and Argentina. One of the authors, in El Salvador, qualified the Report of the Truth Commission there as "Good News" for the people, because their truth is told, as had Jesus.²¹

The need for official acknowledgement to be made

The ethical imperative requires that the truth, in its integrity, be recognized officially by the government as having occurred. This is a momentous step, in the eyes of the victims and their families. "The establishment of the truth was essential for a social catharsis, to restore victims' dignity and to put on the national record an indisputable truth about the past".²²

With more delicate implications, but of lasting import, the ethical imperative requires that those people who were perpetrators of violence, in the universe of truth, acknowledge their authorship of a particular criminal act, and accept the truth. However, the record of any such personal acknowledgement by torturers, is infinitely small. In Argentina, out of the thousands of officers who were directly implicated in the "dirty war" against the civilian population, a total of three people, have publicly come forth with confessions of complicity.

The requirement of confession poses a major dilemma. Clearly, the act of penitence so central to worshipful acts leading to the eucharist, has been rarely observed in the exercise of impunity. Nonetheless, as one author states, "the message encapsulated in the Christian concept of reconciliation is not forgetting but forgiving (author's emphasis). Contrary to what has been done in the Amnesty Law, reconciliation in that sense starts with the acknowledgement of guilt and acceptance of punishment(...) It places the offender and the offended in a position to express themselves to one another, the one confessing and the other exercising compassion."²³

The need for punitive justice to be served

The same author goes on to argue that from the standpoint of the gospel, a peaceful society is one based on justice (his emphasis), as an effect of righteousness.²⁴ Another author, writing of the scandal and cover-up exercised by the authorities in El Salvador brings us back to a rediscovery of the Decalogue. Each of the ten commandments are examined - you shall not kill, you shall not lie - and confronts it with a situation where the military killed, lied about it and violated all the relevant laws of the Old Testament, even saying they did it to save "Christian civilisation". The Decalogue had a purpose for the people of Israel in the desert: its aim was not to make citizens feel guilt for its own sake, but to protect society, to keep it intact and dynamic, able to live in peace. The place of the law is thus restored to its true perspective: that of making the community viable, and allowing people within it to get on with their lives.

The role of forgiveness

This cherished and valued step on the road to reconciliation is held high in the Christian ethic. In those cases, as in Chile, where repentance was expressed sincerely and forgiveness has been requested directly from the family of victims, the miracle of restoration and reconciliation occurred. However, forgiveness can be a political tool and a form of manipulation. Who is to forgive, and on whose behalf? One of the author insists that "one cannot forgive in the abstract, through someone else, a third party, because forgiving the wrongdoer would then be tantamount to cruelty towards the victim!. Only those who have actually been tortured or robbed can forgive the wrongdoer."²⁵

Furthermore, he continues, "one cannot talk of forgiveness or reconciliation in the same categories when we move from the sphere of relations between individuals to that of a society in conflict. Forgiveness and reconciliation have to be analysed on the basis of political categories, which are not so simple and uncomplicated. The fate and life of many people are at stake here (...) The shepherd never puts the wolf into the sheepfold."²⁶

A certain number of political leaders and church leaders in Latin America propose "turning the page" of history and moving on. Our Latin American friends say, wait! No turning of the page until it is carefully read.

The primacy of hope. Impunity impedes the realization of concrete expectations of the people of God in society. In United Nations terminology, justice must carry within it the seeds of the fulfilment of social, economic and cultural rights. There is an intimate connection between individual reconciliation and social reconciliation. We are speaking of a society sick with hate and fear, whipped by the violence of division, broken and yearning for a future of abundance in all senses of the word. For it to occur there must be hope for one's children, and for justice in all realms of human activity, the conduit of aspirations, and free from the structural sins of the past.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this presentation a deliberate reference was made to the costly struggle of previous generations for freedom from tyranny and the exercise of their rights. These generations demanded justice as today Korean and other Asian women claim justice for crimes committed then. In a similar way the generous and sacrificial acts of earlier ecumenical generations remain a fundamental reference-point for us as Christians, to meet the frightening new challenges which face societies today - be they to resist xenophobia and racism in modern government policies, to oppose military and humanitarian threats to sovereignty, to denounce violence to women, to defend indigenous rights, to overcome religious fundamentalism or to abolish torture.

Impunity breeds personal and social sickness, divisions, political instability and a deep sense of fundamental injustice reaching across generations. Impunity cries out for redress.²⁷ It stands, among the challenges which face new democratic governments and their societies, as one of the most serious problems which the human community, and the churches must face.

A liturgical paradigm

As members of the ecumenical family, we find in the well-springs of our faith the motive and the strength, to combat impunity. We may start with the central act of liturgical celebration, common to all the great Christian traditions. Perhaps unwittingly, we combat impunity as a condition to reconciliation with our neighbour each time we meet to hear the word of the Lord and celebrate the eucharist. It is in the liturgy itself where we find, freshly stated, all the essential elements which the Lord requires of us, to oppose the impunity of torture and sin, while striving for a just and peaceful society:

• A reading of the law, as an unambiguous criterion for social and civil behaviour;
• A call to repentance directed to those who broke the law;
• A confession of such acts, and repentance, opening the way for dialogue;
• The proclamation of hope in "good news";
• The declaration of forgiveness, opening the way to regeneration and the building of community;
• Public reconciliation, made visible in the eucharist.

Witnesses for Justice

God's people includes those who died violently for justice in this generation. The list of martyria - a contemporary cloud of witnesses - is lengthy. We evoke and honour their struggles by naming some here who trigger strong ecumenical memory: Paulo Wright, Maria Cristina Gomez, Mauricio Lopez, Marianella Garcia Villa, José Manuel Parada, Juana López, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Mirna Elizabeth Mack Chiang, Oscar Alajarín, María Emilia Islas Gatti de Zaffaroni, André Jarlan, Delia Melgar Quispe, Jean-Marie Vincent.

The credibility of the movement to combat impunity comes down, in the final analysis, to the integrity of those people who have risked all for new hope. As one of the authors has eloquently put it: martyrs carve out a physical track in history, into which we can step and walk more easily.

Charles Harper of the Presbyterian Church (USA) served the World Council of Churches from 1974 as Executive Secretary for Human Rights in Latin America. From 1991 to 1995 he was the Director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA).Of dual Brazilian/USA citizenship, he is currently engaged in research and training with human rights defenders worldwide, particularly with respect to the issues of protection and impunity.

Notes