In recent years, many countries have welcomed reconciliation as a means of confronting the fractious legacies of the past. The purpose of these Commissions is to unify people and move them forward to democratic

development. Nations as diverse as Guatemala and El Salvador in Latin America, East Timor in Asia and South Africa and Nigeria in Africa have embraced reconciliation programs. These programs have been an effective means of coming to terms with their painful pasts of repressive state policies and the negative legacies of sharp political divisions and deep conflicts. They are seen therefore as instruments for the democratization of non-democratic political systems. Thus,reconciliation processes have increasingly become a central part of the transition agenda in emerging but politically fractured democracies.