Vijesti ROMI.HR

Nadbiskup Romero je 23. ožujka pozvao salvadorske vojnike da ispunjavaju svoju kršćansku dužnost tako što će prestati izvršavati vladine naredbe za represiju i ubojstva. Sljedeći dan, nakon mise, ubili su ga ispred male kapele u San Salvadoru. Taj je zločin bio uglavnom ignoriran i nekažnjen sve dok ga nije istražila Komisija za istinu u Salvadoru pod vodstvom UN-a. Utvrđeno je da je Roberto D'Aubuisson, vođa odreda smrti kojeg podržavaju SAD, naredio njegovo ubojstvo.

Ovaj slučaj je simboličan i podsjeća nas da je "pravo na istinu o teškim i ozbiljnim kršenjima ljudskih prava neotuđivo i autonomno pravo, vezano uz dužnost i obvezu države da štiti i jamči ljudska prava, provoditi efikasne istrage i jamčiti efikasne pravne lijekove'' (UN, 2021). Kad države ne uspiju ispuniti svoju misiju osiguravanja prava na istinu, potkopavaju osnovne temelje demokracije i stvaraju prepreke za pravdu.

Zanimljiv je slučaj Španjolske s obzirom na vrlo ograničene napore državnih vlasti da zaštite pravo na istinu; posebno u vezi s kršenjima ljudskih prava koja su počinjena u zemlji tokom Španjolskog građanskog rata (1936.-1939.) i Francovog režima koji je uslijedio. Proganjanje, zatvorske kazne i nasilje protiv oporbenih skupina, vjerskih manjina i pripadnika romske zajednice postali su uobičajeni tokom tog cijelog razdoblja.

Kao što Stephen Burgen objašnjava za list Guardian, ''Španjolska je jedina demokracija koja nije istraživala državni terorizam nakon što je došao kraj diktaturi.'' S obzirom na suučesnički stav španjolskih institucija u odbijanju provođenja istraga zločina, Ujedinjeni narodi su pozvali Španjolsku da poduzme akciju, posebno u vezi s prisilnim nestancima u tom razdoblju. U sudskom postupku Nacionalnog visokog suda procijenjeno je da je broj žrtava, odnosno prisilni nestalih osoba 114.000 za razdoblje od 1936. do 1951. godine. Proces se također odnosio na otmice više od 30.000 djece tokom Francovog režima. S obzirom na to da je pravosudni postupak u potpunosti bio paraliziran, ove se brojke činjenično ne mogu potvrditi.

Jedan od ključnih elemenata za razumijevanje ove nesklonosti ispitivanju zločina je tzv. „prijelazno razdoblje“ (''La Transición'') koje se uslijedilo nakon Francove smrti 1975. godine. Ogromna polarizacija španjolskog društva, uz utjecaj pro-Francove političke elite koja je željela zadržati institucionalnu moć, jako je utjecala na proces tranzicije prema demokraciji. Konkretno, to se materijaliziralo usvajanjem Zakona o amnestiji iz 1977. godine, koji je u teoriji bio smišljen za miran i stabilan prijelaz u demokraciju putem pomirenja. Međutim, u praksi se podrazumijevalo da brojni zločini kršenja ljudskih prava, počinjeni tokom prethodnih 40 godina, ostaju neprocesuirani. Zbog prisilnih nestanaka koji se smatraju grubim kršenjima ljudskih prava (i zbog toga ne zastarijevaju), Zakon o amnestiji takvih zločina smatra se nespojivim s međunarodnim pravom.

Izvještaj Radne grupe UN-a o prisilnim nestancima iz 2015. godine ističe poteškoće u pristupu istini u Španjolskoj. Zakon o povijesnom sjećanju usvojen 2007. godine, namijenjen priznanju zločina, nadoknadi štete i 'vraćanju' sjećanja, imao je djelomičan uspjeh, i u pogledu institucionalnih obaveza i u pogledu sredstava za provođenje. Ne postoji formalno-pravna obveza Države da provodi istrage s ciljem pronalaženja i identificiranja žrtava, s tim da teret pada na obitelji i udruge koje moraju pokrenuti inicijativu. Mučan birokratski put prema provođenu istraga aktivno ih destimulira da pokreću istrage.

Prema Radnoj grupi Ujedinjenih naroda: 

''Ne postoji nacionalni plan za traženje nestalih osoba, ne postoji koordinacija iskopavanja i identificiranja žrtava, niti se povremeno ažuriraju informacije o lokacijama masovnih grobnica.''

Sve to, zajedno s općim otporom objavljivanju tajnih dokumenata, politička pristranost u obradi zahtjeva za istragama, pa čak i "namjerno uništavanje dokumenata" u nekim slučajevima otežava pristup istini o žrtvama.

Zbog navedenih razloga, bilo bi vrlo poželjno da se Španjolska pridržava svojih međunarodnih obveza prema ljudskim pravima i osigura efikasne mehanizme koji omogućuju stvarnu transparentnost. Bez istine i pravde, mala je šansa za postizanje istinskog pomirenja, posebno u podijeljenom društvu koje se sustavno potiče da zaboravi svoju prošlost.

In 2010, the United Nations declared the 24th of March as the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. This day was chosen in remembrance of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero on the 24th of March 1980. Romero was active in denouncing human rights violations taking place in El Salvador, which had become widespread especially during the Salvadorean Civil War beginning in 1979.

On the 23rd of March, Romero had called Salvadorean soldiers to fulfill their Christian duty by stopping to obey government orders of repression and killings. The following day he was shot in front of a small chapel in San Salvador after mass. The crime remained largely ignored and unpunished until the UN-led Truth Commission for El Salvador investigated it, concluding that Roberto D'Aubuisson, leader of a US-backed death squad, had ordered his killing.

The case is symbolic in reminding us that ''the right to the truth about gross human rights violations and serious violations of human rights law is an inalienable and autonomous right, linked to the duty and obligation of the State to protect and guarantee human rights, to conduct effective investigations and to guarantee effective remedy and reparations'' (UN, 2021). When states fail in their mission to preserve the right to truth, they undermine the basic foundations of democracy by acting as a barrier to justice.

The case of Spain is interesting given the very limited effort exercised by state authorities in protecting the right to truth, in particular regarding human rights violations committed in the country during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Francoist regime that ensued. Persecution, imprisonment and violence against opposition groups, religious minorities and members of the Roma community became common throughout the period.

As Stephen Burgen explains for The Guardian, ''Spain is the only democracy that hasn’t investigated state terrorism once a dictatorship had come to an end.'' In view of the complicit attitude of Spanish institutions in refusing to investigate crimes, the UN has successively called on Spain to take action, especially in what concerns enforced disappearances in that period. A judicial process from the National High Court estimated that the number of victims of enforced disappearances is 114,000 for the period 1936-1951. The process also referred to the abduction of over 30,000 children during the Francoist regime. Given that the judicial process was paralyzed entirely, these figures cannot factually be confirmed.

One of the key elements to understand this reluctance to investigate crimes is the 'Transition period' (La Transición) that took place following Franco's death in 1975. The huge polarisation of Spanish society, combined with the influence of a pro-Franco political elite eager to retain institutional power, deeply affected the transition process towards democracy. More specifically, it materialized through the passing of the 1977 Amnesty Law, in theory, designed for a peaceful and stable transition to democracy through reconciliation. In practice, however, it implied that numerous human rights crimes committed during the previous 40 years remained unprosecuted. Because enforced disappearances are considered gross human rights violations (and are therefore imprescriptible), the Amnesty Law is widely considered incompatible with international law.

The 2015 UN Working Group's report on enforced disappearances revealed the difficulty in accessing truth in Spain. The Historical Memory Law passed in 2007, designed to provide recognition, reparations and ''memory recuperation'', has had limited success, both in terms of institutional commitment and funding. There is no formal legal commitment for the State to conduct investigations to locate and identify victims, with this responsibility falling on families and associations having to take the initiative. The tortuous bureaucratic road towards investigations actively discourages them to pursue action.

According to the United Nations Working Group: 

'There is no National plan to search for disappeared persons, no coordination of exhumation and identification activities exists, and no periodic updates of mass graves sites have been done.''

This, combined with a general resistance to de-classifying material, political bias in the processing of search requests, and even a ''deliberate destruction of documents'' in some cases make it very hard in practice to access the truth.

For these reasons, it would be very desirable that Spain adhered to its international commitments vis-a-vis human rights and provided effective mechanisms that ensure real transparency. Without truth and justice, it seems unlikely that reconciliation can be truly achieved in a polarised society that has been consciously forced to forget its past.