the soldiers jailed for the UCA massacre were freed and those who committed war crimes were protected from prosecution. Those who violated human rights during the war, however, were not to be protected from the investigative arm of the Truth Commission on El Salvador. Source: Icarus/Tamouz Media, Inc. The Truth Commission The UN-sponsored Truth Commission on El Salvador investigated human rights abuses that occurred during the civil war. Since the first truth commission was implemented in Uganda in 1974, they have played an important role in the investigation of human rights violations, but a limited role in holding perpetrators accountable for their crimes. In the case of El Salvador, unlike the role of the commission in South Africa, there were neither confessions by the war criminals nor displays of forgiveness by the survivors. The Truth Commission on El Salvador operated for eight months from July 1992 to March 1993 and its mandate was to investigate serious acts of violence committed during that country's civil war (1979 -- 1991) and to recommend methods of achieving national reconciliation. 15 Among more than 22,000 documented complaints, the truth commission determined that the vast majority of cases were committed by the Salvadoran security forces. 16 The commission's final recommendations included the dismissal of culpable army officers and civil servants from government employment, but it did not call for prosecution of incriminated perpetrators because it saw the Salvadorian legal system as incapable of executing such prosecutions effectively. The commission recommended payment of reparations to the