Brazil shines a light on its dark years

An official report detailing atrocities carried out during Brazil's two-decade dictatorship from 1964 has been released for the first time by the country's authorities. The 500-page book, "The Right to Memory and the Truth," came out on Aug. 29 after 11 years of research. It outlines the systematic torture, rape and disappearance of nearly 500 leftwing activists and includes pictures of corpses and torture victims. The launch coincided with the 28th anniversary of Brazil's 1979 amnesty law, which pardoned both leftwing dissidents and members of the military. "We are working to definitively turn over this shadowy page of our history," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told an audience in Brasilia that included many families of the regime's victims, wearing T-shirts picturing their missing relatives. "It is an important step," said Cecilia Coimbra, one of the founders of Tortura Nunca Mais (Torture - Never Again), which has campaigned since the 80s for the release of such information. "For the first time the state has officially recognized the fact that the state itself tortured, kidnapped, hid bodies and committed crimes against humanity," said Coimbra, who herself spent three months in captivity at the hands of the dictatorship. Human rights groups say that at least 485 political activists were killed or kidnapped, never to be seen again. Some are believed to have been buried in clandestine cemeteries, although the report contains no specific details of their locations. Campaigners say Brazil's military regime originated the idea of the desaparecido, "the disappeared," and exported torture methods across Latin America. "One of the wounds that remains open is the location of the remains of many dead opponents," President Lula admitted. He said further documents would be handed over in the quest for reconciliation. "A large part of the documents have already gone to the national archive. What remains will be sent to the archive, because we want to contribute and work towards helping Brazilian society turn the page once and for all." But Coimbra said that it was untrue to suggest a significant number of documents relating to the period had been made public. "This is an outright lie," she said. "The material is pitiful. The majority has never been made public." She added that Brazil remained South America's "most backward country in terms of rescuing the memory of this period". "Where [did they die]? How? When? Who killed them? These questions are still unanswered," she said.