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people's warExplanation But there have also been many lows. // I remember at a hearing when somebody talked about just walking daily with her child down the street and so on and this most overwhelming sense of sadness… I just felt I wanted to weep no end. And often I think it’s when things resonate with one and often ... We have seen very few former politicians, generals and foot soldiers expressing genuine regret for the evils of the past. The apologies we have heard so far mostly went along the lines of, if we hurt people, we are sorry, but we didn’t mean it. Adriaan Vlok and Pik Botha also expressed regret. As far as our collaboration and resistance to the system is concerned there is the community at large. In truth, the community at large was a complacent community, feeble in its responses and going whichever way the wind was going at that particular moment. In 1979 Imam Abdullah Haron was murdered ... The request that I want to make is that in all that I have done I did it because I was tempted by a very clever person who was older than me. And after such a long time that the Asvat family has been troubled, wanting to know as to the circumstances surrounding their relative, their father or their ... But the message that was given many people was you’re a coward or there’s something wrong with you, and again there was the attitude of almost a joke, bossies was a sort of a joke. People joked about whether they were or weren’t or whether other people were or weren’t, without really ... Anti-apartheid activist and ANC lawyer Griffiths Mxenge. On the 19th of November 1991, his body was found on this sports field in Umlazi near Durban. He had 45 stab wounds, his throat was slit and his ear severed. The murder of Griffiths Mxenge became one of the most notorious political ... It was a group of people who were violating the community. It was a group of hooligans who were attacking people and they got my husband and stabbed him to death. When we got there we got the Three Million Gang. I saw him; he had been attacked by the Three Million Gang. When I tried to tell him the ... During his amnesty hearing Dirk Coetzee hopes to tell his story for the last time. But he will not be able to bury it. // There’s one thing I will have to live till the day I die, is the corpses that I will have to drag with me to my grave, of the people whom I’ve killed. Remorse I can assure ... It was an operation that was done by myself entirely in cooperation with the riots unit. There were two operations. There was the cleanup operation before four in the morning and then that evening it was four special constables and myself. // Who gave you the instruction to kill? Was that Major ... I got off by the corner over there from the car that fetched me. When I was coming up this way I saw about two or three dead bodies. As I came I passed a hippo next to one of the corpses. When I arrived, I discovered that the house was already full of people. My mother was lying between the bedroom ... Even the most hardened opponent of the Truth Commission process will have to agree, these people have the right to know the full truth and it seems if we might just get there by the end of the year. The flood gates have truly opened with the torrent of new applications for amnesty from former ... And then obviously the question around medical treatment, people who still have bullet wounds, people who still suffer at a physical level should be given medical treatment and those people also suffering from psychological continuing problems, they should also be given help. A common worry is that the Truth Commission should not become the forgiveness commission. // You know, we have attended a case of, you know just recently, de Kock’s case. He didn’t appear sorry for what he did, and he expects people to say, okay we forgive him … which is very … you know we ... We are looking for measures which will restore people’s dignity which has been lost. We felt, we are looking for measures which will somehow assist people to more or less be able to live a life they would have lived was it not for the violation. Are you prepared to say to the Zimbabwean people you are sorry for what you did? // Yes I would. // Are you really sorry for what you did? // Yes I am. Well it was something that I didn’t want to get involved in. You get put into a situation where you think well let me help get this thing out of ... In order to succeed what you need possibly is the stick of the courts and the carrot of the Amnesty Committee or of the Commission. And these two ought to be held in tension. The moment you drop one or the other then I think you’re in trouble, in terms of searching for the truth. Because a whole ... This sleepy holiday resort was the unlikely venue for testimony that one Commissioner described as among the most harrowing he has heard. People came to tell their stories inside a cordon of heavy security. This time the police were there to protect the witnesses as much as the commissioners, for ... Having been overcome by the colonialists because of their superior weapons, mobility and fire power the African people correctly decided to resist the unholy alliance by setting up political organisations, drawing up petitions, organising protest marches as well as involving students and workers in ... Steyn was worried that the two gang members would escape from custody, as had happened in the past and so would never be brought to justice. // I told the Defence Force people that they should shoot and if there were any queries about the deaths they should just say that they had died on their way ... The people were given coffee; there was a sleeping drug in it which was provided by Capt van Zyl or Lt Niewoudt. It was put in their coffee and given to them. Shortly thereafter they fell asleep and then the people were taken out of the garage one by one and they were eliminated. // Who did the ... |