Apartheid era victims want justice in South Africa
Clare Nullis
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Maureen Mazibuko still bears the
physical scars of torture and the emotional scars of watching apartheid
era security forces gun down her husband.
She has given up hopes of justice in the courts but longs for a
mere apology. Until then, she can neither forgive nor forget.
South Africa marked the 10th anniversary of its Truth and Reconciliation
Commission still questioning whether the experiment was the best
way to heal a nation deeply wounded by apartheid. The commission,
headed by Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, granted amnesty to
some who confessed and showed repentance, but many who refused to
confess have gone unpunished.
“I want to meet up with my perpetrators and hear them say
sorry for what they have done,” Mazibuko, who was attacked
with acid that left her permanently bald and in frequent pain, told
a conference Thursday marking the 10th anniversary of the commission
designed to promote justice as well as forgiveness.
The conference heard demands from human rights activists for tougher
government action against the worst offenders and more compensation
for victims, coupled with pleas from an aide to South Africa’s
last white president for reconciliation rather than revenge.
“Today we live side by side with each other without fear of
political violence or that our neighbors will attack us,”
said Yasmin Sooka, a former commission member, who now heads the
Foundation for Human Rights. “This is a reason to celebrate.”
But she said countless South Africans remained hungry for justice.
“For many victims’ families in South Africa, they do
not live in peace, they live in a twilight zone never being allowed
to forget their pain ... or put closure to their memories,”
said Sooka.
More than 21,000 victims gave evidence to the commission during
an emotional two-year journey into the slayings and torture of the
apartheid era. The panel granted amnesty to about 1,000 South Africans
who confessed and showed remorse.
It refused to pardon the worst offenders, such as Eugene de Kock,
who headed a police unit notorious for assassinations and who was
nicknamed “Prime Evil.” He was sentenced to multiple
terms of life imprisonment.
But it had no power to act against those who refused to confess
their crimes. Instead it passed on the names of about 300 suspects
to the National Prosecuting Authority for further investigation.
The government announced guidelines late last year to proceed with
prosecutions. But Torie Pretorius, a senior member of the unit,
said lack of manpower was likely to slow progress.
“My kingdom for a good investigator ... we don’t have
the investigators,” he said.
Pretorius, a state prosecutor for the past 30 years, said he still
suffered from “post traumatic stress syndrome” for the
government’s failure to convict Wouter Basson, the alleged
apartheid-era head of germ warfare.
Basson was acquitted in 2002 of 36 charges, including murder. Witnesses
testified that he tried to create deadly bacteria and anti-fertility
drugs that would only affect blacks, as well as stockpiling cholera,
HIV and anthrax. The intended victims allegedly included former
President Nelson Mandela. Authorities decided last year not to re-open
charges against the man dubbed as “Doctor Death.”
“I feel very hurt that Basson won’t be prosecuted because
I was tortured with his acid,” said Mazibuko. “I feel
very strongly that he should look into my eyes and ask for forgiveness,”
said the 54-year-old.
Mazibuko was three months pregnant when her husband was killed by
security officers in 1973. Later that decade, she can’t remember
when exactly, she herself was detained and tortured with acid. She
wears a scarf to conceal her baldness and has been repeatedly hospitalized
for ailments blamed on her torture.
The political architect of some of apartheid’s worst repression
remains unpunished, and unrepentant.
P.W. Botha, who ruled South Africa during its worst political violence
and refused to give evidence to the reconciliation commission, recently
celebrated his 90th birthday at his family farm, untouched by the
law.
“It’s so sad that 19 years later, we still don’t
have the sense of people taking responsibility for their actions
during apartheid,” said Sooka, the former commission member.
She commented that the recent arrest of former Liberian President
Charles Taylor should serve as a warning.
But Dave Stewart, aide to F.W. De Klerk, South Africa’s last
white president who negotiated the end of apartheid with Mandela,
said that revenge — rather than reconciliation — would
merely “open old wounds.”
“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.
(Associated Press)
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