Truth and Reconciliation

South Africa and Rwanda

• 1994: Hutus kill Tutsis

• Gacaca Courts: truth over punishment (except for leaders)

Britain• 1) “The Troubles”: approx. 3,500 killed (1,857 civilians)• Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein• Bloody Sunday: 30 January 1972: 26 civil-rights protestors shot

by British soldiers– 2010: Saville Inquiry: “unjustified and unjustifiable;”

possible criminal investigation• 1981 prison hunger strikes: Bobby Sands (elected MP, died of

starvation)• 1998: Good Friday Agreement shift power in Northern

Ireland to locals• 2007 elections: Sinn Fein and Democratic Unionist Party form

coalition gov’t, British troops end occupation• 2009 truth and reconciliation commission w/lenient sentences

for crimes associated with Troubles• 2) 2009-2011: Iraq Inquiry

– Wikileaks release cable: “[John] Day [British defense dept. official] also promised that the UK had "put measures in place to protect your interests" during the UK inquiry into the causes of the Iraq war. He noted that Iraq seems no longer to be a major issue in the U.S., but he said it would become a big issue -- a "feeding frenzy" -- in the UK "when the inquiry takes off."

China• Tiananmen Square Protests, 1989• Death of Hu Yaobang (Party Secretary

until student protests 1987 steps down; headed economic + political reforms of Deng in 1980s) + political corruption + economic problems (inflation) + collapse communism East Europe protests calling for economic + political liberalization

• Party freezes: is this what Deng wants? (Deng had “resigned”; leadership by committee; Zhao Ziyang backed protestors against Politburo)

• “June 4th Incident” PLA units move in (“Tank Man”)– “May 35th Incidents”

Google Image Search: “tiananmen square protests”

China Britain

Mexico• 1) 1968: student uprisings around the world

(Paris)• Summer Olympics in Mexico City: opening up

of Mexico under PRI 10,000 students organize at Tlatelolco Plaza (after earlier protests + violence)

• Oct 2 military moves in sniper kills general massacre

• Election of Vincente Fox serious investigation + prosecutions; reveals Mexican gov’t snipers killed the general– Minor support by US for Mexican gov’t in crack

down• 2) Zapatistas: 1994: “war” against Mexican

state, corporate intrusions into Chiapas (NAFTA: small corn farmers put out of business), marginalization of indigenous– Subcommandante Marcos

• Zapatistas : IRA :: PRD : Sinn Fein

Nigeria• 1992: Ogonis, led by Ken Saro Wiwa, demand

royalty payments for oil ($10 billion) violence • 1994 crackdown 2,000 civilian deaths,

100,000 displaced people + execution “Ogoni Nine”

• Shell paid Nigerian military to shut down protests (2002 class action lawsuit filed; accusations of Chevron playing similar role)

• 2000: Niger Delta Development Commission to build up the region

• 2008-9 Crackdown; June 2009 amnesty for those who surrendered their weapons

Russia• Khruschev’s 1956

“Secret Speech”: anti-Stalin cult of personality + crimes; “Gulag Archipelago”– Putin rebuilding Stalin’s

reputation

• Chechnya: widespread human rights violations during series of wars 1990s-2000s; murder of reporters with “trial” of killers (stooges)