A bench of three Peruvian judges has convicted former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, of gross human rights violations. These were torture, kidnapping and enforced disappearances committed during the early 1990s. The Special Criminal Division of Peru’s Supreme Court concluded that Fujimori as president bore individual criminal responsibility in all three cases because he had effective military command over those who committed the crimes.
In South Africa, we have a string of apartheid security force ministers and army generals who had effective military and police command over those who committed similar crimes against humanity including, in addition, extrajudicial killings; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and prolonged unlawful detention. The last of those in office were minister Adriaan Vlok and General Johan van der Merwe. They too would surely meet the criteria used in Peru for individual criminal responsibility for crimes of apartheid.
Vlok and van der Merwe did not apply for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). However, they have applied for presidential pardons for the only criminal offence they were convicted of — poisoning Reverend Frank Chikane’s underwear. As a result of a plea bargain to which Chikane as the victim agreed, they entered a guilty plea and suspended sentences were given. Now they want their criminal records expunged. And it seems the political reference group has recommended to the president that these criminals be pardoned. We do not know if Reverend Chikane was again consulted or whether as the victim, he agreed.
We do know that other victims of those the reference group has recommended have not been consulted. For instance, the widow of sociologist David Webster who was assassinated by Ferdi Barnard. Perhaps South Africa as a whole is a victim here and should have a say. Perhaps Webster could have played a major role in assisting the post-apartheid government to prioritise poverty alleviation fifteen years ago. Perhaps Webster would have become a leading international academic of whom we would all be proud. Is South Africa willing to have the criminal record of his murderer expunged?
Somehow South Africans have not been outraged enough to take Vlok and Van der Merwe and others who had effective military command over those who committed crimes of humanity to court. Did the TRC numb our desire to pursue justice? Were the gruesome testimonies of those who directly suffered torture, rape, prolonged detention and cruel, degrading treatment too much for our delicate “but I didn’t know” consciences to bear? And too much also for those who “I lived those stories, they are my stories” to contemplate resuscitating? Have those stories become but a dim and distant, but never to be eradicated gene in the DNA of our collective consciousness?
Those who directly experienced the atrocities carried out by the security forces, who exposed their pain and grief at the TRC, still await some semblance of the “rehabilitation” recommended in the TRC final report. And there are tens of thousands who did not testify at the TRC. Many of the individuals who testified as well as those who didn’t, are members of the Khulumani Support Group.
Perhaps it is time the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) laid criminal charges agains Vlok, Van der Merwe, and others who were not granted amnesty. Perhaps it is time the people who still live with the consequences of Vlok and Van der Merwe’s respective individual criminal responsibility laid criminal charges too.
At the same time it would be necessary to start lancing the hidden abscesses of crimes against humanity committed in secret by the liberation forces. Extrajudicial killings; rape; torture; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment were not the sole prerogative of the oppressors. Rumours abound of orders to kill those suspected of being double agents. Rape as a means of subjugating women within the liberation movements was allegedly not uncommon. Is it the fear of these secret crimes coming to light, those responsible being prosecuted, and the muddying of parties’ heroism-mythologies, that has allowed the pursuit of justice for the more overt human rights crimes of the apartheid criminals to be quietly smothered?
What about the string of apartheid state presidents and prime ministers who presided over similar crimes of humanity? Can one charge and find a person guilty posthumously? History certainly has and continues to do so.
Easter is traditionally a time of resurrection. An anomalous celebration of spring when in the southern hemisphere we enter the autumn months. Why should we not look our collective histories in the face once again, and perhaps allow the rainbow to die in the hope that through a thorough, albeit painful purging, and subsequent implementation of restorative justice, we would somehow reach our own spring-time cleansed and renewed? Perhaps only then could the true magnificence of a reborn South Africa be realised.
Did you ever witness a necklace killing?
Not sure if the apartheid government did anything to an individual that was a more terrifying death than the ANC’s necklace.
Did the ANC not kill more black people than the Apartheid government?
We loaded 28 bodies on one weekend. One was killed by us the rest were either necklaced or hacked to death with pangas.
From my simple troop point of view, the ANC did more atrocities against a civilian population than the SADF ever did.
So who should be in the dock?
Which is probably why no one is.
Mr. Robson
I have read your article and maybe you are right. I also taught (educator of adults) people and amongst them were Quatro camp guards.
When it came time to talk about questioning technichues and interogation, these chaps told us how to make people talk. Nothing technical, just brutal and violent.
If we charge Vlok and van der Merwe, then we should equally charge members of the current serving (holier than though) government.
Lets get it up and running and we see the current criminals in charge dissappear or have the law changed to suit themselves, or like Zuma, manipulate the system.
Your article is worth 0 out of 5.
Why do you want to stick a finger into a painful wound that is finally beginning to close?
That was “ago” – we dealt with it, maybe not 100% satisfactorily, but we dealt with it. Apart from a few screaming individuals flogging long-dead horses, the people of SA have put this crap behind them and now we want to just carry on living our lives.
The desire to re-visit the past again and again and again is simply not there, apart from the above-mentioned individuals who either is burdened with an insubordinate amount of white guilt, or somehow cannot accept the fact that the liberation struggle is over – you’ve won, now get on with it.
We got enough of today’s problems on our plates to worry about yesterday’s problems – again!
Lets live in 2009, huh? The 80’s is long gone.
@ Owen, Where are your facts? Since at least 1652, blacks were tortured, murdered, raped, and dehumanised by European colonisers. During Apartheid, the situation was even worse. Yes, the ANC did some bad things but what it did is nothing compared to the Apartheid system. Although it is inexcusable to necklace someone under any circumstance, remember that during the few instances in which the ANC hurt people, it was part of colonial resistance, the Apartheid govt was killing them to maintain their power and continue to oppress blacks. Besides, the NATS killed people on the basis of their race, but not the ANC. The ANC did not go around killing whites. Then again, there will always be people who want to trivialise that brutal system. Just as those who always harp on about the Jews who were complicit in the killing of other Jews in “Hitler’s Nazi Germany” because they want to deflect attention from the real criminals. Defend Vlok & co all you like, after all you benefited immensely from Apartheid. It is expected that you might feel inclined to defend those who ensured your priviledge. One would not expect that you would sink so low.
Thank goodness there is Ron who can talk some sense in the midst of such madness.
I’m sorry Roy for misspelling your name. Thanks for this insightful, informative and well-writen article.
@Roy & Philipa,
When I read your rants I have to think that it would have been much easier had the ANC government established simple rules when they came into power. Whites out; now, then we carry on. It would have been a massive disruption but would have eliminated all this breast beating and whining we still hear 15 years after “liberation”.
Roy seems to want to chase every last conscript that went into Angola without having his passport stamped because you can’t draw an artificial line anywhere – crime is crime. Pilipa et al seem to want every white in SA to be guilty forever. I say that if this is the attitude of no forgiveness for the sins of the fathers, and SA doesn’t want humans with white skins to be citizens, then don’t be silly, cut your losses, get out, get real, go. Staying will be a waste of time and ultimately your life.
@Phillipa – So why did the ANC attack fellow black south africans (in large numbers) and why did it encourage the use of the necklace and why did it use schoolchildren to fight its war?
While apartheid was evil, perhaps life back then was not so morally one sided as you and Roy believe.
@ Philippa:
“The ANC did not go around killing whites”
*splutter* EXCUSE ME?!?! Man, I must be dreaming! Obviously you never heard of man named Robert McBride, to name just one.
Philipa, I’m telling you what I said in my original comment – drag your butt into the 21st century, move on, the liberation is over, we need to look forward, not to the past. That is not denialist, that is not trivialisation, that’s ensuring that kids today don’t have the same “discussions” about race 20 years from now.
Healing does not happen when you continually pick off the scabs. In fact, it festers and rots, which is why 15 years later south Africa is more racially divided than in 1994. The bullt-wang of an idealist non-racial South Africa has racialised us beyond measure. If everyone, including the current corruptors-in-charge, dismissed race entirely as was said in 1994, and we saw each other as people, not as black and white, or as “previously disadvantaged”, guess what, we would be living in utopia today. That’s why I’m saying forget about the past, let’s look at tomorrow, I do not want my kid to one day ask me why he is living in a racially segregated society the way we are today.
And oh, I am certainly NEVER going to apologise, or feel guilty, for being white.
Roy Jobson, you’ve obviously hit the “guilt” nerve here judging from some responses.
Recently, I heard of a Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk living in Ohio finally brought to justice at the ripe old age of 89.
With the TRC though, SA has chosen the road less traveled in time we will learn of the wisdom of this decision.
@Owen
It sadder still to see people like you in such denial over apartheid atrocities that spanned almost half a century! The sheer number that died at the hands of the apartheid regime will cast a long shadow on our history for many generations to come.
@Japes
Most whites in SA want to distance themselves from likes of you. Your anger towards the black government, intolerance towards genuine public discourse, and constant bitching and lashing out at others is pathetic.
“simple rules”, “guilty forever”, “no forgiveness”, “SA doesn’t want humans with white skins” — all point to someone in desperate need of help. Please try to conduct a coherent conversation!
Dave,
I’m a simple person. Say what you mean; mean what you say; don’t whine and wriggle. There is no hatred and SA treats me pretty well except for a fear of violent crime. Also except for an ongoing irritation with race obsessed people like yourself, Philipa et al who cannot get beyond ongoing hate mongering based on skin colour. Those days should be past, you are trying to re-invent them and cling desparately to race classification. If you want to do so; that is your choice but think a little further to the conclusion of your race based thinking. That is what I am trying to show you.
@japes
Doesn’t feel good when you get some of your own medicine does it?
Rather that labeling people who want to speak about race as race obsessed, why won’t you admit that the beneficiaries of generations of apartheid need to take some responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in today? Do you think that those that committed atrocities can ever be free from their actions?
The fact that SA liberation did not happen through bloody civil war is a miracle and testament to Mandela’s greatness and the generosity of the oppressed people. Why can’t you be grateful for this and show your gratitude? Why can’t you see the ANC as a party of liberation?
You claim to be a “simple person” so can you provide a simple answer to how we can redress the imbalance in education and wealth created by generations of white privilege?
Dave,
Wot are you on about? I somehow don’t think you’ll redress racism with more racism. Do you?
Now for simplicity. If all wealth was equally divided amongst everyone in SA, would the poor be significantly better off and the imbalance addressed? SA needs to create more wealth. How? Zim should have been stabilised to provide investment and commercial opportunity for SA and not an influx of refugees. Money should not have been wasted on SWC 2010 and defence. It should have gone to power (electrical not political), education, healthcare and crime prevention. Oh, and stabilising and stregthening tourist attractions like the KNP, not giving away its assets to BEE pals.
Your rebuttal?
@Japes
Absolutely, hundreds of years of SA racism can and will be addressed by Affirmative Action. AA is not racism. The implementation of AA/BEE by the Mbeki regime was abysmal and simply led to more corruption. Hopefully this will be addressed in the coming years. Imagine you and your ancestors being oppressed for hundreds of years and suddenly someone has the gall to tell you, lets forget about race. Lets be colorblind. Now you can understand why the previously oppressed like the machine gun song so much! AA has successful in the US, India, UK etc. – this is a FACT and Obama is indisputable proof of this. There is still room for improvement but we march on.
When you said you had a simple mind, I did not realize just how simple
Anyway, I agree with your points on Zim and tourism.
Not exactly sure why I’ve ended up having this “debate” with you but nuff said.