Alex Boraine Quotes

After genocide, justice is impossible …. You cannot put all these people who committed these atrocities to death or in prison.

Reconciliation does not mean covering history with a blanket. Reconciliation means truth, justice and love. Justice without love can degenerate into vengeance. We need to know the truth for medicinal reasons, so that what happened … will never happen again.

There can be no deal, no amnesty for war crimes.

Peace with justice is very difficult. My people need both, but we need peace more.

We have to support truth and reconciliation and some form of justice.

The goal of pursuit of justice must not simply be that justice happens but that reconciliation also happens.

Justice is not Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only within the bonds of things as they are... and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow.

Peace cannot come without the engagement of those who have been before. Gen. Dostum will make peace possible. He was engaged in conflict of the past. Forgiveness is an extremely important part of our culture. But, like Rwanda and South Africa, we need to fashion our own solution.

There will be no future without forgiveness. Any process of peace is bound to collapse if this is missing. There is no way peace and stability can come through the gun of vengeance.

In the aftermath of any war or genocide, healing and reconciliation are ultimate aspirations.

Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

In consideration of the frightful and astounding crimes and misdeeds committed against the kingdom of France by Charles, the said Dauphin, it is agreed that we, our son Henry, and also our very dear son Philip, duke of Burgundy, will never treat for peace or amity with the said Charles

Democracies that have achieved military victory ought to refrain from seeking revenge.

Peace lovers today would give up all justice.

Prosecute? I am not interested in prosecuting. I am interested in building a nation.

To the Muslims in America…: How can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful coexistence with a nation that is responsible for the tyranny and crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters? I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad [holy war] against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding upon every other able Muslim.

If all the collaborators were removed from their posts in bureaucracies, industries and utilities, the machinery of society would grind to a halt. Punishment of the guilty had to be balanced by other interests. Too much zeal would have made the rebuilding of societies impossible.

We can't continue with a justice of vengeance. Peace will require us to accept a certain degree of impunity; it's inevitable.

I'm a believer in forgiveness. I have worked with people who have been in gangs and now dedicate their lives to helping inner city kids. I've run offender services with teachings of responsibility, empathy and understanding of the victims at their heart. I've seen people change.

Justice is one of the core elements towards reconciliation and sustainable peace.

There's what we did wrong and what we did right. The mistake is that we did some things against the people - by us and also by the enemy - but the other side, as I told you, is that without our struggle there would be no Cambodia right now.

Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future.

Emphasize reconciliation, not resolution. It is unrealistic to expect everyone to agree about everything. Reconciliation focuses on the relationship, while resolution focuses on the problem. When we focus on reconciliation, the problem loses significance and often becomes irrelevant.

The message of reconciliation, of nation-building, of granting amnesty, indemnity, has struck a powerful, favorable chord. And people can understand that we're here not for purposes of retribution but to forget the past and to build our country.