Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation 9780804767804

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Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation

CULTURAL

SITINGS

Elazar Barkan, Editor

presents focused discussions of major contemporary and historical cultural issues by prominent and promising scholars, with a special emphasis on multidisciplinary and transnational perspectives. By bridging historical and theoretical concerns, cultural sitings develops and examines narratives that probe the spectrum of experiences that continuously reconfigure contemporary cultures. By rethinking chronology, agency, and especially the siting of historical transformation, the books in this series go beyond disciplinary boundaries and notions of what is marginal and what is central to knowledge. By juxtaposing the analytical, the historical, and the visual, this challenging series provides a venue for the development of cultural studies and for the rewriting of the canon.

CULTURAL SITINGS

Taking Wrongs Seriously Apologies and Reconciliation

EDITED

BY

Elazar Barkan Alexander Karn

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

~

Stanford, California

zoo6

Stanford (T n is ersitv Press Stanford, Cal ifornis. See Neil J. Kritz and \Villiam A. Steubner, "A Truth Commission for Bosnia and l lcrzegovina: \Vhy, l low, and When?" paper presented at the \'ictimology Symposium, Sarajevo, Bosnia, May 9-10, 1998. 66. I layner, Unspeakable Truths, p. 211. This complementarity, of course, is not automatic; for, as IIayner demonstrates, there are "potential areas of tension" as well, tor example, the award of amnesty limits the reach of criminal trials aliCI civil litigation. See Hayner, f..lnspeahahle Truths, pp. 206-212, especially p. 208. For a review of Hmncr's fine book, sec DaYid A. Crocker, re,·ic\\ of Unspeakable Truths by Hayner and Transitional Justice by Ruti G. Teitel, Ethics 6 International Affairs 15, 2 (2001): pp. 152-154· 67. Ibid., p. 210. 68. Pablo DeGreiffhas objected that this sequencing of the ends of retribution and reconciliation might be em braced retrospectiYely, but runs into problems as a matter offorwarcl-looking polic\'. De Greiff remarks, "Annonncing to former perpetrators that they will not be prosecuted now, but rather in five years, will not do much to make prosecutions more acceptable to them" or, we might acid, to their supporters. (Pablo DeGreiff, e-mail message, February 15, 2000 ). This point is incleccl worrisome because

DAVID A. CROCKER

it seems to be changing the rules of the game during the match as well as keepin~ a potential indictee in limbo with respect to whether or not she/he will be indicted and tried. There are two possible strategies to meeting this objection. Authorities could either refrain from adopting sequencing as public policy ("first reconcile and then trv''J, bnt later seize it when politically feasible, especially if political will is determined by dcmocr~tic deliberation. Alternativelv, the sequencing of reconciliation-retrihntion could he dernocratically agreed to as a matter of policy, as 10)

RUT! TEITEL

Another illustration of the performance of an executive apology, in its modern monarchical form, occurred at the time of Queen Elizabeth's longdeferred \'is it to India. Despite longstanding demands for recognition of England's imperial role, it would not be until1997, ''hen the Queen, tor the first time, would pa\ homage at the site of a colonial massacre (An1ritsar), which had occurred almost ninety years before. Some political leaders found the action absurd, because, as thev put it, "the Queen had played no part in the event." 26 Nevertheless, representatives of the victims of the massacre reported feeling vindication in the Queen's speech and in her ceremonial role in representing the body politic. 2 7 At the very least, the apology was understood to perform limited accountability in a symbolic function. To date, there are ninety-four instances of Pope John Paul's apologies 28 regarding, among other things, the Inquisition, the Crusades, the persecution of Je\\ s, the religious wars, and the treatment of \\'Onlen. 2 '~ '1 'hrough this ritual the Pope had performed contrition and had sought to enable "transition" in the public perception of the institution of the chmch. In spring 2000, a sweeping papal apology pleaded for repentance for the Church's errors over the last two millennia.3° In this "millennia!" apology, the Pope was accompanied by several cardinals and bishops who cited the key lapses, which included a great variety of injustices to indigenous peoples, women, immigrants, and the poorY The apology was made a part of the Lenten service, thus building upon a preexisting ritual of sacrifice and constituting a symbolic form of

degradation of authority, aimed at forgiveness ami reconciliation. Thus, from di,,crse quarters, there is a surge in transitional apologies.

3· Dcmocracv's Turn Above, I h