Abstract
Even after a settlement is reached and a peace agreement is signed, this is by no means the end of the conflict. For a conflict to really end, healing the minds and the bodies of the victims of wars are necessary. Indeed it is the necessary first step to reconciliation to appear and people who have suffered the war need to reconcile in order to prevent the last war to be the cause of the next. Indeed as Whittaker's explains "reconciliation goes beyond resolution to refer not just to the psychological process whereby understanding and tolerance lead to readiness to live together in a new framework of peace and well- being". As one might expect, there are big differences in how various societies have attempted to tackle the problem of 'dealing with the past'. Two categories of solutions can be found: internal reconciliation, such as in Chile and South Africa in 1990's and external reconciliation through the increased use of legal redress in external war crimes tribunal, such as for the former Yugoslavia.
