South African Howard Varney has represented victims of political violence and took part in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in his own country, where he also led an independent criminal investigation into organised political violence. Furthermore,  he was the Chief Investigator for the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Apart from traveling around the globe assisting countries with their reconciliation processes, he now leads the Truth-Seeking Programme at the International Centre for Transitional Justice. Varney was recently in Bogotá, where he was a speaker in a conference with other international experts about Truth Commissions worldwide. He argues that “Colombia has unique circumstances and should therefore come up with unique solutions, but it should also take into account the lessons and mistakes from other countries”. This is why SEMANA INTERNATIONAL, after interviewing Mr. Varney, presents some of his most important conclusions. The case of Sierra Leone It is evident that Colombia and Sierra Leone are two completely different countries, with particular historical, social and economic processes. For instance, Colombia is a much more developed country and can tackle its problems much better than Sierra Leone, which has had some of its institutions destroyed, is the bottom ranked country in the Human Development Index and the seventh lowest in the Human Poverty Index. Nevertheless, Colombia’s current armed conflict and Sierra Leone’s civil war, which ended in 2002, have at least three aspects in common: child combatants, refugees and IDP’s, and a war fueled by natural resources. Mr. Varney admits that Sierra Leone is the country where the problem of children used by armed forces is most evident. He describes children at war, not only in that African State but also elsewhere, as “a lost generation”, since they not only lost their childhood –which causes mental and social problems- and spent that time perpetrating all sorts of atrocities, but also missed out on schooling and a proper family. That is why it is extremely difficult to reintegrate them back to a normal society, even though in the African country some civil society institutions and the church have been trying to tackle this problem. A similar situation occurs with internally displaced persons and refugees. He describes both the child combatants and the IDP’s and refugees as problems that will haunt the respective countries for decades to come. It is common that after citizens are displaced, the remaining forces in the regions take control of the land and the possessions, so it is frequently a difficult task to start a reconciliation process in which the victims will get back what they lost in the first place. As far as natural resources are concerned, both Sierra Leone’s conflict and Colombia’s have been fueled, at least partially, by the natural wealth of both countries. Sierra Leone has immense reserves of diamonds, bauxite and even gold. On the other hand, cocaine has been a very important element of Colombia’s decade-long civil conflict. It is relevant to note that Sierra Leone’s war resources are legal, whereas the cocaine industry is everything but legal. What is common to both cases, so Mr. Varney, is that the control of those resources is not in the hands of the government, so it allows private citizens to be in charge of a very lucrative business. That is also a reason why the money from those resources has not been used to help the common citizens, but to increase the wealth of only a few. According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, “Sierra Leone has made much progress since the civil war ended in 2002, but a number of social and economic time bombs must still be defused if an enduring peace is to be built”. It gives a recommendation which can also be applied to the Colombian context: “Building a lasting post-war political settlement requires a genuinely national project”. South Africa’s peace process Seen worldwide as one of the most important success stories, South Africa’s peace process had various similarities with the one Colombia is currently facing. In fact, says Varney, Colombia has borrowed for its own reconciliation steps some elements of the South African peace process. In Colombia, a ‘Truth for a lenient sentence’ process (Law of peace and justice) is taking place. In South Africa the process went even further and offered perpetrators the possibility to receive amnesty as long as they revealed the truth. Colombia’s process was inspired partially in the South African experience. In South Africa’s peace process, there were some elements that can be a lesson for Colombia. On the first hand, according to Mr. Varney, most common South Africans learned that the secret for a successful reconciliation process is to be able to give and take, i.e. to understand that both sides of the conflict have to feel confident with the agreements. The Role of the Truth Commission in this African country was precisely focused to offering an open and inclusive process, where the victims, the perpetrators, the government and the civil society were all able to take part freely. This meant that the whole process was well balanced and not one sided. Varney admits that Colombia should learn from this experience and make the confessions by former paramilitary leaders (so called ‘free versions’) an open process in which all parts of the society can participate without facing any burden. South Africa, even though it still faces a lot of tasks to fully complete its reconciliation process (there is still xenophobic violence, independent institutions are not always respected and crime is a huge problem), it has also been able to develop a human rights culture, in which most people have been able to understand what rights they have and make them enforceable. The South African Constitution, adopted after the conflict (1996), is also an example for other countries, because it is a way of protecting the rights of all citizens, no matter where they come from or what they do. “It is the glue that holds the country together”, Varney concludes.  Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.