Unlike other countries within the region, the UDV within the Czech Republic has taken a much harder line toward the former regime and those who ran it. Elsewhere, former communists continue to hold influential economic and political positions, exercising a formidable amount of power. This goes not only for the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but in places such as South Africa and Chile as well. Many of these truth commissions have likewise been ineffective, sweeping crimes of the past under the rug and failing to constructively reconcile the differences and rifts within societies that were created by the former regime. The end result of this are socio-political landmines waiting to explode.
Chile provides a case in point.
The arrest in Britain of former dictator General Pinochet has reopened old wounds. All Rights Reserved.