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Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers: Reconciliation in Transitional Societies

Understanding reconciliation in times of political transition raises fundamental and ultimately unanswerable questions about the human condition. Talk of reconciliation invariably comes after there has been some gross violation of norms: widespread disappearances, killings, torture, and rape. Reconciliation necessarily conjures its antecedents and forces us to ask how men (and sometimes women) can visit such horrors upon one another. When we look at the face of evil, are we, as many people contend, seeing ourselves, or on the contrary are some people capable of evil in a way that others would never approach? Reconciliation is perhaps deeply compelling, however, because it not only implicates the worst that human beings are capable of, but the best as well. Reconciliation embodies the possibility of transforming war into peace, trauma into survival, hatred into forgiveness; it is the way human beings connect with one another, against all odds. It exemplifies the potential for virtually limitless strength and generosity of spirit that is also immanent in human nature. This Article explores some of the questions that must be confronted when incipient governments promote reconciliation to palliate the ills of transition. In Part II, this article raises broad conceptual questions about reconciliation. Part III then examines the historical factors that have contributed to the spread of reconciliation initiatives throughout the world in recent years. In Part IV, we examine why nations pursue reconciliation and whether reconciliation can achieve the goals imputed to it. Finally, Part V looks at the mechanisms by which nations pursue reconciliation. This article concludes with suggestions for developing a further understanding of reconciliation.