Pain continues, 10 years after Truth Commission

CAPE TOWN – Ten years after the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, South Africa is still trying to find the best way of healing the wounds left by apartheid.

At a conference yesterday to mark the anniversary, victims of human rights abuses during white racist rule demanded that the government prosecute outstanding perpetrators. The commission, headed by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, granted amnesties to some people who confessed to their crimes and showed repentance.But most of those who showed no remorse have gone unpunished.Yasmin Sooka, a former member of the commission, said that the panel had given a list of 300 names to prosecuting authorities between 1998 and 2004.But little had happened.She said guidelines issued at the end of last year on prosecutions were flawed and offered those who had so far refused to repent “a second bite at amnesty”.Sooka said that the recent arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone should serve as a warning to key figures in the apartheid regime that no one can escape justice.An aide to the last white South African to serve as president, FW De Klerk, said the emphasis should be on reconciliation rather than revenge.Dave Stewart, head of the FW De Klerk Foundation, voiced fears that the white minority would be unfairly singled out in any future government drive to prosecute people who committed crimes during apartheid.”If we proceed with prosecutions on a one-sided and uneven basis, the consequences will be an even more deeply divided society and more bitterness,” he said.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which first met in April 1996, was a landmark attempt to heal the wounds of the past and has inspired other nations confronting turbulent histories.- Nampa-APThe commission, headed by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, granted amnesties to some people who confessed to their crimes and showed repentance.But most of those who showed no remorse have gone unpunished.Yasmin Sooka, a former member of the commission, said that the panel had given a list of 300 names to prosecuting authorities between 1998 and 2004.But little had happened.She said guidelines issued at the end of last year on prosecutions were flawed and offered those who had so far refused to repent “a second bite at amnesty”.Sooka said that the recent arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone should serve as a warning to key figures in the apartheid regime that no one can escape justice.An aide to the last white South African to serve as president, FW De Klerk, said the emphasis should be on reconciliation rather than revenge.Dave Stewart, head of the FW De Klerk Foundation, voiced fears that the white minority would be unfairly singled out in any future government drive to prosecute people who committed crimes during apartheid.”If we proceed with prosecutions on a one-sided and uneven basis, the consequences will be an even more deeply divided society and more bitterness,” he said.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which first met in April 1996, was a landmark attempt to heal the wounds of the past and has inspired other nations confronting turbulent histories.- Nampa-AP