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people's warExplanation Reconciliation Commission here. But they only had powers to invite people, either perpetrators or victims, or families of the disappeared to come forward and give testimony. Unfortunately in both Chile and Argentina they primarily took evidence from families of the victims and not from ... But finding the truth has not only focused on apartheid’s killers and its proponents. There was the agony of Afrikaner farmers whose families were blown apart by senseless landmines planted by ANC cadres, of bombs that exploded in civilian areas and of APLA guerrillas who stormed into churches ... By the end of the process we would have had a good dose of the truth; we would have had quite a bit of exposure of what had happened during our mandate years. I am not quite sure whether we have given much direction in actually striving for reconciliation and I’m not convinced that we have really ... The remains of a deceased person are very important to the family. People would want to know where their grave is, so that when the time comes for that family, members of that family to communicate with the dead people, the deceased, they will know where to go and stand or where to go and kneel so ... as Ubuntu, right, that is humanity, respect of other people’s integrity and life. // But in general, people are saying give them a chance, come forward. In other words, they are forgiving them. One of the reasons is the Mandela factor. The kind of leader we have in South Africa is an example, a ... In the same year that the Ribeiro’s were assassinated, in 1986, Piet Ntuli was minister of the interior in the former homeland of KwaNdebele. He was put there by the South African government but then they lost control over him. As Jack Cronje tells it Ntuli became leader of Imbokodo, a ... There was a box in the corner of the room. That box looked very suspicious. When I looked at the box I just heard an explosion. The people who died immediately are Bimbo and Ntshingo. Fanyana was next to me. We could not see each other but we could speak to each other. He could not see or walk. I ... We were busy withdrawing and if this person had not thrown a hand grenade there would have been no shooting. // That is exactly my point. Why did that shooting take place? There were several police officers there. There was the possibility that you could prevent that these people could get away. ... Colonel Gideon Niewoudt, one of the policemen mentioned by Joyce Mtimkulu was one of the men who stalled earlier attempts to get Mtimkulu’s story before the Truth Commission. His legal counsellor, Dup de Bruyn tried in vain to address the Truth Commission. // We furthermore delivered to Bishop ... The suffering of the South African people may be over but the psychological damage will have an effect for a long time to come. In tonight’s programme we focus on post traumatic stress disorder. We visit the vast, peaceful plains of the Karoo where the Truth Commission encountered unexpected ... I think if I look back at it now, I would see it as being naïve to think that one could really change the country and the future of people in South Africa. // I was terribly afraid of the unknown of what would happen in South Africa. At that stage I feared an ANC takeover and now I know it was ... Jann, we come running through the gap in the fence. We come running for 50, 60 yards. 100, 200 people behind me, many more following. We come to a situation about here at the telecommunication centre, lots of soldiers lined up there. We were really at the stage where we would have been closed down and one of the parents brought me a number on a little, small piece of paper and said, just for the last time contact these people. And this was a German trust, a Christian development trust and they came out here and they looked at ... It just says fulfil these legal obligations and then we sweep the terrain clean and can start on a clean slate. // Let’s talk about the other leg, reconciliation. There’s been a lot of criticism that this has only been the opening of wounds and no real reconciliation. Do you agree with that? // ... We were forbidden from burying our own without the permit of the oppressor. To minister to our own people was turned either into a criminal offence or an act for which one would be labelled as schismatic from the church catholic. Today we wish to offer an unreserved apology to those who felt that ... What is distressing me now, and together with the family is that we don’t know the truth. So knowing the truth to us now becomes the prime thing, the most important thing. But as I indicate that I know that the whole thing, the whole issue here, it’s a process. So maybe immediately we know the ... I do not know if he made a deal. I wouldn’t know. You see, I’m not a politician. Quite frankly, when I understood that there had been an intervention by him I was on leave and I was sick and I was not here. But I understood that he was doing so at the request of the minister of safety and ... This school in the township of Thabong was at the heart of student mobilization. In 1986 literally hundreds of young men and women from the goldfields skipped the country. Testimonies at the TRC this week suggested the flood into exile was caused by the push of the security forces rather than by ... … Loose everything that you worked for in your life, get out of the country, go and face the so-called enemy. Tell them you’re sorry. And with your back against the wall and with the help of the world media - because they say the pen is mightier than the sword and I firmly believe it up till ... He says they were given 30 minutes to destroy. An indication that the attack was planned. // A lot of these houses were burnt and that big house over there was the first to be attacked, it was the first to burn after people had run away. // You also travelled up to this point? // Yes I travelled ... |