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people's warExplanation …because people wanted to make war, they’re fighting us. We were only SRC students, students speaking out, and now they were fighting us. So we had to retaliate. BMW was the Youth League of MK; we were the ones who did the fighting in Bonteheuwel. ... if one can learn from other countries, and certainly the Chilean Truth Commission, they took the position that the recommendations that went forward was that people should not hold public positions where they were involved in gross human rights violations. // Even if they were fighting a just ... ... We should rather have stayed at home. Things would have gone better. It served no purpose. It was a waste. As far as I’m concerned the whole bush war in South West was also a waste of money and lives. They might as well have called a general election in 1948. What was the purpose? ... In war there are two aspects that are involved, if not three. One is the physical involvement where people are stabbing or shooting one another. Secondly is the question of the moral or spiritual involvement where your heart or your spirit will tell you that you’ve got to do this. So the trend ... Shaun and John who fought this war were told they were protecting their country and their people against the threat of communism. The church and its chaplain said they were fighting for the Christian faith. The politicians said they were killing and dying on foreign soil because their country ... ... with. It was a very messy situation and we had to, as we saw it, apply messy legislation without any particular crusading zeal to fight a just war or anything like that. It was a very unfortunate situation we landed ourselves in. ... ... landed. Another came painted with army colours and dropped off some more police on the opposite side of Ngquza hill. They then all started coming towards us. We did not even expect any clashes, because none of us had weapons except Wana Johnson had a gun. He had come with his revolver, our ... It’s very difficult to know how many deaths are on the hands of these people and that’s because of the very nature of the secret war. The conflict in Matabeleland cost between 5 and 10 000 lives and at least one of the people who is in Chikurubi now as a convicted prisoner was very directly ... This civil war that has become a reality of life in KwaZulu-Natal in the last decade has left many thousands dead. In areas like the south coast around Port Shepstone the concept of human rights has become as strange as killing has become familiar. People there are tired of the conflict. Yet when ... It was a brutal and chaotic war that lasted for nearly five years and many of its battles were fought in and around the hostel compounds of the South African townships. Many people have told the Truth Commission about the terror associated with these fortresses and their inhabitants. ... the guerrillas, the booby trapping of portable radios given to black Zimbabweans and brutal executions. More than 55 000 people died in that dirty war. A real pity there wasn’t a truth commission in Zimbabwe after their liberation. This coming week there will be two days of hearings about ... ... What is your personal feeling? // I am sorry for the victims and the family of the victims. Because at the end of the day they did not fight in the war. So in that regard I am sorry. I am sorry for them, for the people who had to suffer. And I apologise. // If you look back, was it worth it? // ... saying sorry and that everyone in South Africa is ... the conflict between the oppressed people and the oppressor. Now that thing now, I think that war is over. Thank you. // Please no killings, that’s not necessary. I know she died not for nothing, so please don’t kill ... one we need to learn a lot about in our country because the parallels are very dramatic. Some things do seem to make it worse, being in an unpopular war, an unpopular conflict is a problem. Our men had a problem worse even in some ways than Vietnam in that I’ve seen a number of people who talk ... ... continue unabated. Third force activities and divide and rule policies by former governments are perhaps part of the reasons for the low-key civil war in this province. It certainly is not ideology or class. The disturbance of natural divisions of political support through the homeland policy ... There was still a war between them and us. There’s no reconciliation in fact yet, but I hope there would be next time. // People do not have energy of fighting daily. You can’t have that energy. Fighting is not a sweet thing you know, it’s not Bar One, because we lose friends, we lose ... Church street, Pretoria 1983. Amanzimtoti, 1985. ANC bombs remind ordinary white South Africans there is war. // The bomb that caused the biggest emotional outcry exploded in Church Street, Pretoria, in the late afternoon of May 20. 1983. 19 People were killed and 219 injured. The ANC claimed ... ... section 29 to subpoena people but bring them to a public hearing. // You have worked well with the Attorneys-General in pushing people to come forward and apply for amnesty in the case of the police and you are also working with the Defence Force. You don’t get that idea, that there is a ... ... about the conflict between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal. More than 10 000 people have died in this war since the early 1980s. During the past few weeks the Truth Commission has paid special attention to KwaZulu-Natal with two amnesty hearings and a ... ... of about 20 policemen, people with counter insurgency training. // That’s correct. And I approached people who had fought in the Rhodesian bush war and perhaps also in Namibia and who had been in the task force; I didn’t go there with a group of administrative staff. I used people who had ... |
