Special Report Transcript Episode 55, Section 1, Time 00:30

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and we as a nation have to deal with two kinds of truth about our past, the truth through the eyes of the victims of human rights abuses and the truth as seen by those responsible for those abuses. We have now heard the voices of the victims, or perhaps we should call them the survivors. The rest of the year will be dominated by the testimony of those who apply for amnesty from the Truth Commission. Many hope that a more detailed picture will emerge about the former government and its security system. Who were the planners and who were the executors? By the end of the amnesty process we also hope to be able to answer another question. What really went on in the hearts and minds of those who invented apartheid and then enforced it so brutally? This shift in the work of the Truth Commission got off to a strange start in Pietersburg in the northern province this week. 14 Local policemen asked for amnesty for their roles in the killing of 6 Umkhonto we Sizwe insurgents in 1986. With the exception of one, a black ex-policeman, these men felt they had not committed any crime because they had killed in self defence. But they would apply for amnesty anyway, just in case they had committed a crime. They said their amnesty applications were largely motivated by the possibility of a criminal investigation into what is known as the Eendvogelpan killings.

Notes: Max du Preez

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