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A time for the truth
The sixth set of skeletal remains bore the marks of violence,
with a cloth hood still over the head and hands still tied behind
the back. Such are the horrors coming to light near the old Puma
infantry barracks, and the evidence indicates that some, probably
most, of the material authors of these crimes are still alive.
The search for the truth is not, as former President Ernesto Pérez
Balladares claims, a mere witch hunt designed to sully the name
of General Omar Torrijos. The full ugliness of the truth that's
being dug up in Tocumen is not somehow balanced, as some PRD members
suggest, by human rights violations during Arnulfo Arias's administration
in the 1940s, or by wrongs done in the 1989 US invasion.
The truth about repression during the military dictatorship won't
save the Arnulfista Party and its allies at the next elections.
No amount of mud slung at the memory of Omar Torrijos can obscure
the scandals in which so many of Mireya's appointees are immersed.
The truth about yesteryear's abuses is not a screen to conceal
other truths about this administration's shortcomings. It would
be a better 2004 election strategy for President Moscoso to get
rid of the shameless ones.
However, the truth would bring closure, if not much comfort, to
the families of the dozens of people who disappeared. Its revelation
would be an important civics lesson for Panama, a vaccination
of sorts to avoid a recurrence of one of our uglier chapters.
Panama should set up a Truth Commission to examine all of the
human rights abuses committed during the entire dictatorship,
including those that happened during its initial coup and those
committed by all sides during the 1989 invasion that ended it.
The point of this inquiry should be truth, not punishment. The
commission should hold public hearings, examine all the witnesses,
physical evidence and relevant documents, and protect nobody from
embarrassment. The commissioners should be free from all political
strings and even the appearance of bias. We may even want to bring
in respected jurists from other countries, men and women without
any sympathy or antipathy for any Panamanian faction, to be the
truth commissioners.
It's time for the truth. Let the chips fall where they may. Let
the partisan spin doctors have their say afterwards, but let's
not cut the process short by once again burying our history for
the sake of political expediency. The families of the victims,
and the Panamanian people, have a right to know.
Bear in mind...
Some of you have arms, and I ask you to put them away.
Martin Luther King Jr.
If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly
see anybody.
Agatha Christie
I've always wanted to smash a guitar over someone's head. You
just can't do that with a piano.
Elton John
