Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission |28 June 2019

Mrs Leon taking her oath before President Faure

Two commissioners take their oath

Two commissioners of the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission who were not present for the swearing-in ceremony in May this year, took their oath yesterday.

The two – Bishop James Wong Yin Song and Marie-May Léon – were sworn in as commissioners before President Danny Faure at State House yesterday morning.

The five other members took their oath on May 9 this year.

Present at the ceremony yesterday were Vice-President Vincent Meriton, Speaker of the National Assembly Nicholas Prea, leader of government Business in the National Assembly Charles De Commarmond, Attorney General Frank Ally, Ombudsman Nichole Tirant-Ghérardi, chairman of the Constitutional Appointments Authority (CAA) Michel Felix and other members, secretaries of state, senior officials in the Office of the President and the other members of the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission.

Archbishop Wong is currently the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Seychelles. He is also the Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean since August 2017. Archbishop Wong is the vice-chair of the Seychelles Inter-Faith Council (Sifco) and has its support to serve on the Commission.

Mrs Leon is a teacher and specialist in special and inclusive education by profession. She currently holds the position of director general in the social affairs department of the Ministry of Family Affairs and for the last ten years she has been holding several managerial positions. Mrs Leon is abreast of principles of human rights, issues that she has been involved with in her work.

The mandate of the commission is to provide the public with the opportunity to settle grievances linked to the June 5, 1977 coup d’etat and subsequent events. It will allow both victims and perpetrators to come forward and tell their stories and evidence given will not be admissible in any civil or criminal proceedings since its aim is not to prosecute but to repair open wounds for national unity. The commission now consists of the required five Seychellois and two foreigners as members.

The other Seychellois members are Dr Marie-Thérèse Purvis, Michael Green and Jacques Koui Gbilimou while the two foreigners are Australian chairperson Gabrielle McIntyre, who was present at yesterday’s ceremony and Mauritian Pierre Rosario Domingue who was not present.

Now that all members have been sworn in, Ms McIntyre said the commission is looking forward to the start of its official mandate in August which will be marked by an official launch.

She noted though that even before the swearing in of the last two commissioners yesterday, the commission had been doing some ground work to prepare itself for the inauguration as it had a quorum.

And to add to that Ms McIntyre said they had also been meeting representatives of the civil society, Sifco, the National Assembly and some contacts with the general public through job advertisements amid a number of outstanding meeting requests with other leaders in the community which will take place soon.

Ms McIntyre further said the commission has no formal case on hand as the formal mandate starts in August when people can come and make their complaints.

She said though the commission has had some informal inquiries from people that wanted to bring in their complaints.

Ms McIntyre also said as the Act forbids the commission just to receive files from National Assembly, it would be very important for complainants who have put forward their complaints before the National Assembly to tell the commission that they want it to take up their complaints.

Ms McIntyre said that even though faced with a difficult and sensitive task with a lot of complexities, the commission has a very diverse team of commissioners, with a local majority, to do the very best but only with the support of the leaders and other people in the community.

She noted that the commission is also waiting for the result of a verdict to be heard in early July on a petition put forward by lawyer Alexia Amesbury before the Constitutional Court to stop the commission from hearing any cases.

The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission will be temporarily based at the Bel Air Complex, behind the bakery situated at the junction of the St Louis – Bel Air road.