ABSTRACT
Truth commissions are almost never smooth, pleasant, well-managed, wellfunded, politically uncomplicated bodies. On the contrary, most struggle daily with a barrage of methodological, operational, and political problems, and operate under extreme pressures of time and under the heavy moral and emotional weight of their task and the risk of damaging error in their conclusions. They may be threatened by those who feel at risk from an honest investigation. They are confronted with hundreds of difficult operational questions that will determine the kind and quality of truth that will emerge, questions for which there are often no clear right answers. Even in the best of circumstances, with top-notch managers and sufficient resources, the problems are many and the stress intense.
