Panel calls for end to dictatorship amnesty in Brazil

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cries while delivering a speech during a ceremony to present the final report of the National Truth Commission (CNV) — which  investigates those responsible for human rights violations between 1946 and 1988 in the country — at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, yesterday.

AFP

Brasilia

Brazil’s truth commission investigating the 1964-85 military dictatorship yesterday urged an end to amnesty for torturers, and listed the number of those killed or disappeared during the regime at 434.

The panel made its recommendation in a final report to President Dilma Rousseff, herself a victim of torture during her country’s brutal dictatorship.

“We respect and revere all those who fought for democracy,” said Rousseff, struggling to maintain her composure during an emotional speech in which she said today’s generation and the victims’ families deserved to know the truth. Otherwise, she said, “they will continue to suffer as if their families were dying anew.”

Unlike its South American neighbours, Brazil has not prosecuted military officials for regime-era crimes, because of a 1979 amnesty law preventing it from doing so.

A law signed by Rousseff three years ago created the truth commission, which is empowered to summon witnesses under oath but not to bring any prosecutions.

The group yesterday urged that amnesty be lifted for torturers and those who had wilfully violated human rights, adding that the final tally of victims likely is an undercount.

“These numbers do not correspond to the total of dead and disappeared,” a commission statement read. “These are only the cases it was possible to verify... despite obstacles to the investigation, notably the lack of access to documentation produced by the armed forces, officially listed as destroyed,” it said.

“Under the military dictatorship, repression and the liquidation of political opponents became state policy,” the commission added, saying that amnesty is incompatible with Brazilian and international law.