6. Healing and repentance In this section the respondents were asked about victims’ capacity to heal, and to make an assessment of whether they thought that the perpetrators would repent of the wrongs committed. Their assessments are presented in Tables 11 and 12. Forty-one per cent of the respondents felt that there was no likelihood that the perpetrators would ever repent or admit to the violent acts they had committed. An equal percentage also thought that the victims would never heal. In one of the areas worst affected by political violence, a woman was asked what she would need in order to be healed; she answered, ‘My husband.’ Her husband had been murdered during the political violence. Twenty-seven per cent of the people polled believed that it was possible to heal the victims effectively. Those who had doubts about the possibility of the victim being healed constituted 33 per cent of the respondents. Seventy-four per cent doubted the prospects of perpetrators of past human rights violations ever repenting. Table 11: Do you think perpetrators of past violations can ever repent? Frequency Yes Maybe Never I don’t know TOTAL 823 Percentage 26 807 25 1 316 41 243 8 3 189 100 Table 12: Do you think victims can ever be properly healed? Frequency Percentage Yes 874 27 Maybe 815 26 1 292 41 No I don’t know Not applicable * TOTAL 177 6 31 0 3 189 100 * Refers to those who did not respond to the question. Transitional Justice Survey – A Report of the People’s Perceptions and Recommendations 17