Nearly 20 years ago,
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu
and other black South Africans sought to forgive
their tormentators by forming the Truth and Reconcilationcommission(TRC).

The 17-member commission began its hearings in April 1996 to investigate crimes committed during South Africa's apartheid era(1960-94).
Its report was eventually turned over to the country's president, Nelson Mandela.

The TRC hearings cast a wide net.
Winnie Mandela(the president's wife) eventually apologized for a murder committed by her bodyguard.
Former South African president, F.W. de Klerk, apologized for the years of apartheid rule.
A policeman (who had been granted amnesty by the TRC for his role in a massacre of civilians in 1988) later asked the victims community fo forgiveness
But for every supporter who backed the Anglican archbishop's attempt to bring about reconcilation, others criticized the TRC's presumption of offering forgiveness on behalf of the victims.

Archbishop Tutu defended the TRC.
He told those who had supported apartheid,
"You are being given the only opportunity you are ever going to get to come to terms with the aweful things you did to us.
It will come out in your children carrying the burden of guilt for their mothers and fathers."
Without forgiveness, he stressed, there is no future.

ㅡ from the "The Little White Book" based on
     the writings of Bishop Ken Untener.