Call for The TRNUC timescale to be extended with a revised mandate |22 April 2022
The current mandate of the Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) ends in August 2022. Their current mandate is to determine the appropriate reparations for the victims of human rights violations committed in relation to the 1977 coup d’Etat up to October 24, 2020 when LDS ousted the SPUP/SPPF/Parti Lepep/United Seychelles from power and the commission is to hand over a report of its findings and recommendations to the President of Seychelles and then be dissolved.
Our TRNUC team has conducted and delivered a sterling job which has outperformed most if not all of the world’s similar commissions set up to address human rights abuses following a coup d’Etat. To allow the commission to just investigate, make its recommendations and then disappear on hindsight this will create despair and confusion. Please allow me to explain our reasoning behind this proposition.
My nephew Francis Monchouguy was 19 years old when he was last seen being pulled into a car at Pointe Larue on December 20, 1990 and never returned home to this day and his body has not been found. In 1999, Francis’ mother, my sister, died with her eyes opened because she left our world with unfinished business on her mind. This prompted me to research into the various coup d’Etat that had occurred around the world. I researched into 53 countries and prepared a report which upon my return to Seychelles in 2007 I created a non-government organisation (NGO) called Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP) and the report was handed over to President Danny Faure by our committee on July 28, 2017 and copies were sent to several leading members of our society including the judiciary and President Wavel Ramkalawan, who was then the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. In parallel to our work the National Assembly had already created its own Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Committee and they held several meetings including one at ICCS on Sunday May 7, 2017 when the invited guest speaker was Pastor Christian Lodewyk from South Africa who was involved in the work of the South African Truth Commission and then on August 2, 2018 a Bill was passed in the National Assembly to set up a Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission. The Bill received assent by President Danny Faure on September 6, 2018 and became effective on September 14, 2018 and the new commissioners were sworn in on May 9, 2019 and the new body was named the Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) with Mrs Gabrielle McIntyre as chairperson, Mr Michael Green as vice chairman and the other commissioners included Mrs Marie-Therese Purvis, Rev. Archbishop James Wong, Mr Jacques Koui and Ms Marie-May Leon. The Bill was further amended on December 27, 2019.
Implementing the recommendations
In several countries the recommendation stage had been successful but in most of them the implementation of the recommendations failed miserably. There are many reasons for this, the most apparent is the reluctance of the government in power to punish the perpetrators, some of whom were friends and relatives and no one had been punished for committing heinous and odious crimes against humanity and violation of the victims’ human rights, not even in South Africa was the process completed satisfactorily. In several countries the report on the recommendations have been passed from one government department to another until it ended up in a locked filing cabinet somewhere in the government’s quagmire. Clearly we do not want this to happen in Seychelles because we are talking here about serious crimes and violation of the victims’ person and belongings which included murder, rape, torture, unprovoked assault, land and property confiscation, false arrest and imprisonment, mysterious disappearances, forced exile, harassment and detention without trial, violations of young girls at the National Youth Service (NYS), victimisation at work, you name it and it happened in our beautiful Seychelles where we are supposed to be a peace-loving nation and where the sun bathes our shores of golden sand, where the effervescent waves break along our coral reefs and the lush greenery of our flora and fauna makes our domicile the jewel of the Indian Ocean and tourists yearn to come on vacation to our little island nation of 115 granite and coral islands which some of us still consider to be paradise on Earth. It may be paradise to those who are not aware of or been affected by the atrocities committed on our friends and families but for Seychellois who live here today the TRNUC hearings on SBC TV have brought out the skeletons from the cupboards and the time for reparation has arrived. No one is seeking any retribution but reparation must be made and made soon not in the distant future. Perpetrators who have not come forward for amnesty, well they have missed a golden opportunity to reconcile their misdemeanors.
The fear now permeating the minds of the victims is that if a new body or organisation is created to implement the recommendations of the TRNUC report the blame game will start especially when things go wrong or the new organisation fails to implement the recommendations of the TRNUC adequately. This failure has occurred in several countries I have researched and I sincerely recommend that we do not go down that road. In addition in some cases the recommendations have been shared amongst a number of different government departments to be implemented and this has resulted in complete failure because first of all the existing government departments are already stretched and can hardly meet their current commitments and along comes the TRNUC recommendations for them to add to their existing workload. This is a formula for failure and the victims cannot absorb any further delays and failures.
Never under estimate the sufferings of the victims
We should never under estimate the sufferings of the victims. The physical and psychological harm the atrocities committed against them have created in their minds and in their daily lives. Until it happens to you it is difficult for you to comprehend the severity and longevity of the harm, the sleepless nights, the false visions, the hearing of noises and the misinterpretation of what is being said because all the time your subconscious mind is pre-occupied with dealing with the trauma and the hurt that have been unnecessarily inflicted on you. You live on the edge of your nerves and the slightest noise creates panic in your mind which your body reacts by quivering the muscles and sweating, the rush of blood to the heart manifest in an increased heart rate, your breathing rate increases and your body’s “fight or flight” response is behind these intense physical symptoms. Normally when you encounter a threat ‒ whether it’s a grizzly bear or a swerving car ‒ your nervous system springs into action. The adrenaline hormone floods into your bloodstream, putting your body on high alert. Your heartbeat quickens, which sends more blood to your muscles. Your breathing becomes fast and shallow, so you can take in more oxygen. Your blood sugar level spikes and your senses get sharper. This is how the victims of a coup d’Etat feel like every day even when the situation is calm and non-threatening the mind believes threat is round the corner and this has been so for years.
The answer is healing and healing must contain elements of reparation not just the saying of “sorry” because “sorry” alone will not remove the hurt from a victim’s subconscious mind. Reparation must bring along physical and psychological restoration because healing is independent of the material universe. For a victim to truly feel recompensed requires transcendence qualities that go beyond limits and boundaries. These are scientific facts. If you damage a car the car can be repaired but the human mind cannot be repaired but a level of acceptance can be achieved either through the administration of hypnotherapy or adequate reparation the victim perceives to be acceptable under the circumstances.
It is with the considerations set out above that STRPP recommends that instead of dissolving the current TRNUC, that their mandate is changed to now include the implementation of their recommendations and that their period in office is extended by a further three years to complete the implementation of their report. This time round, however, they must be well resourced because they will be dealing with victims who have not come forward but are adamant and insistent that they are entitled to reparations too, inter alia.
Contributed by:
Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM, MCMI, MBSCH
Chairman Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP)
The Wishing Well, Anse Des Genets, Mahe, Seychelles
Email: barrylaine@hpcgroup.sc
Web site: www.seychellestruthreconciliation.sc
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this letter do not necessarily represent the views of the Seychelles NATION newspaper.