The Artemis Project - A Truth Commission Archive at Yale University

This is a test of the create-entry function on Artemis by Dave Aiello. The information in this entry is completely fictitious.

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Sierra Leone's bloody civil war of the 1990s was characterized by an intense struggle over control of the country's diamond mines, the conscription of child soldiers, and atrocities against civilians, particularly forced amputations. In 1999, the government and the main rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) reached a peace agreement in Lomé, Togo which included both a highly controversial general amnesty for all parties involved in the war and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The Sierra Leone TRC received its mandate in 2000 and became operational in 2002. In 2004, the commission presented its final report to the government, and the country continues to rebuild from its decade-long war.

The archive of the TRC, about 30 boxes of materials, is housed in Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, some materials have been lost, making it all the more necessary to preserve the current archive, which is not yet digitized. Access a copy of the final report here: http://www.trcsierraleone.org/drwebsite/publish/index.shtml

The Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) was established on June 23, 1994 as part of the Oslo Agreement of 1994 and the peace settlement in 1996 that ended the 36 year long civil war in Guatemala, between the government and the National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit (URNG). The mandate of the commission was to "clarify, with full objectiveness, equity, and impartiality, human rights violations and incidents of violence related to the armed confrontation that have caused suffering to the Guatemalan population." The commission estimated that 200,000 people were killed or disappeared, an overwhelming majority of which were indigenous Mayans. The commission concluded that acts of genocide and crimes against humanity had occurred against the Mayan population. The Guatemalan government contested this charge, and many of the report's recommendations were never implemented due to a lack of political will.

Status of Archives:
All documents and records from the CEH are housed in the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section in New York, with a stipulation that no documents may be open to the public until January 1, 2050, or unless the Secretary-General authorizes it. The CEH archive consists of individual and collective testimonies, electronic and paper files, tapes of 150 key witnesses, and photos. According to Final Acts: A Guide to Preserving the Records of Truth Commissions, the archive needs to be preserved and some documents should be made accessible: "All records transferred to the archives are sealed, and no use--including no preservation activity--has been made of them...Not all records require protection for fifty years...the UN Archives needs to be able to review the records and make recommendation to the Secretary-General on records that can be made available now."

In 1975, East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was annexed by Indonesia and for the next twenty-five years, East Timorese suffered under a harsh regime in which an approximate 200,000 people were killed and even more were displaced. With the fall of General Soeharto in 1999, the East Timorese were given the right to hold elections. Although they suffered active intimidation, the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence; militias responded by killing over 1,000 people, displacing thousands more, and destroying property and infrastructure in several towns and cities. In the ensuing transitional period, the United Nations governed East Timor and in 2002, East Timor became an independent state, Timor-Leste. In 2002, The United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) helped establish a Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) to investigate human rights violations and atrocities committed between 1974 and 1999. The commission was given a two-year mandate and during that time it held a series of public hearings, collecting testimony from more than 7000 witnesses and victims. In addition to investigating facts about the conflict, the commission was charged with helping perpetrators and their victims reintegrate into their communities and with making recommendations for the prevention of future abuses. The commission delivered its final report to President Gusmao in October 2005 and it was made available to the public in 2006.

The archives of CAVR (20,000 pages and 800 hours of audio and visual recording) are in immediate danger of physical destruction, or of being lost or concealed.