TRNUC officially ends today |31 March 2023

(L to r) Dr Purvis, Ms McIntyre and Mr Green

• 371 case reports, 124 cases completed, 1164 witnesses/suspects appear in 272 hearings

After three and a half years of existence, the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) officially completes its mandate today when it will submit its final report to the President of the Republic, Wavel Ramkalawan.

An interim report was presented to the President last year.

TRNUC was established under the administration of former President Danny Faure in 2018 to work on settling past political divisions and grievances that were a result of the coup d'état in Seychelles on June 5, 1977.

During these three and a half years, TRNUC registered 371 case reports and completed 124 reports. Each report is from 10 to 120 pages. There were 272 hearings in which saw the appearance of 1164 witnesses/suspects.  A third of the cases were about land issues.

The members of the TRNUC were Gabrielle McIntyre (chairperson), Michael Green (vice- chairperson), Marie-Therese Purvis, Jacques Gbilimou and Archbishop James Wong (commissioners). The late Rosario Domingue from Mauritius, Mary May Leon and Eline Moses were also appointed on the Commission and they resigned for personal reasons.

Seychelles NATION had a chat with three commissioners – Mrs Mcintyre, Mr Green and Dr Purvis – to learn about their accomplishments and challenges.

According to Ms McIntyre, the work of TRNUC is completed but not for the work they have done.

The final report contains seven volumes, which includes the introduction, evidence and historical context, legal framework and approach to case determinations, amnesty, reparations and recommendations.

Dr Purvis shared that the work of the Commission was based on individual cases and they had to write a report for each case. “It was a massive amount of writing that was done mainly by Mrs McIntyre. She did the first draft of the determination of the cases and then the other commissioners added their comments. We did not have a secretary to do that.”

As of now there are still cases that have not been transcribed and Mr Green added that if they get enough staff, this might be completed around May 2024.

Mrs McIntyre thanked the translators as they did a major job. “It was a daunting job but we were all focused as we had an incredible number of files we had to go through. Even during the hearings, people will try to relate to the commissioners but our commissioners remained neutral and did their job.”

Delivered on expectations

Has TRNUC delivered on the expectations? Both Mrs McIntyre and Mr Green responded positively. “The cases were heard, the research was conducted on different levels and we came to a conclusion based on evidences we were able to access. We did not influence anyone to say anything or stopped anyone from saying what they wanted to say. We also had a clear code of conduct such as a person should not be named unless he/she has been given the opportunity to respond to the allegations we were hearing.”

TRNUC made proposals since last year as they have been giving six monthly reports to the President and in each report they mentioned that there should be a successive body to take over from the Commission to assess and follow-up the recommendations that they had made.

“Even reparations have been proposed according to the Reparation policy document and input with the victims and public. There are 14 categories of violations and they all specify a range for each category and not a specific figure. How the President will deal with that is we do not know, but he said a few times that he will pass the recommendations to the National Assembly.”

One of the challenges for TRNUC was that it was taken to court but it came out even stronger after that event.

What touched you the most during these hearings?

Dr Purvis shared that hearing the atrocities that happened during that period shocked her. “I was in the education system and I was aside from what was happening. We heard one odd story but never knew of all that was happening. What I am sad is that TRNUC did not bring reconciliation and unity and it will probably take longer for that to happen. One of the volumes is actually about the context when the atrocities happen.”

Mr Green was mostly moved by a mother whose child was burnt and she shared the picture to the Commission. “The young man felt something cold on him and the next thing he was on fire. He spent two weeks at the hospital and he passed away. They gave the mother a bag of rice and no investigation was done. It is unfortunate that somewhere along the line, money hijacked reconciliation. People started thinking about money instead of reconciliation. We tried to explain a lot of things which people condemn outright and a lot of atrocities were committed by young soldiers and there was a notion that if you are with us, you are against us. All this has been put out now.”

Mr Green said TRNUC gave the perpetrators the chance to relieve themselves from what they did and also gave the family the opportunity to know what really happened with them.

Mrs McIntyre also added that “we spent two years working with the perpetrators and some we could not get through them. As soon as they started speaking, they lost many friends in the community which also does not help in reconciliation. We made them attend a mass and for me that was the most extraordinary and fabulous act”.

The members of TRNUC admitted that there is a satisfaction of completing the mandate. “People now can have access to some truths and eventually it has raised the interest of young people as they could not find out anywhere,” added Mr Green.

Mrs McIntyre said that "the president needs to get a feel of what we have found and what we have based those findings on and then he needs to look at the reparations policy before he can formulate an opinion on the matter. I think that TRNUC has achieved a phenomenal amount, but it was limited as it never had the outreach capacity and if you really want to bring about reconciliation, I think that is the key. I think that is a failing of the Commission as we could not go around and meet people and talk about reconciliation, where if we had the capacity, we could have driven a real movement of change. When people read volume 1, they will understand under what condition we were working but still completed our mandate. All commissioners were impartial and that came across. I am applauding the work that TRNUC did! It might be we will be criticised by all politicians but we are not delivering something for political consumption for political leaders. At some point we were alone, and that gave us power," concluded Mrs McIntyre.

During the hearings, the commissioners shared there were also some hilarious moments and they enjoyed the whole process.

As from April, 1, TRNUC does not know what will happen next. They heard that there will be a team who will carry on with transcribing and translation and a team will do the archiving and everything will be digitalised but this has not been confirmed.

Vidya Gappy

Photo: Joena Meme