From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:SOUTH AFRICA: AMNESTY BILL TO BE PUSHED INTO STATUTE BOOKS
Date: 7 Nov 92 03:08:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: ddsw1.BxBsps.EKo
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Opecna Morning Transmission
Reference: Human Rights
Title: SOUTH AFRICA: AMNESTY BILL TO BE PUSHED INTO STATUTE BOOKS


johannesburg, oct 30 (ips/eddie koch) -- the south african
government will friday force a controversial amnesty bill onto
the statute books in what is being seen as a blatant move to
pardon secretly persons who committed murders in the name of
apartheid.

the bill was rejected by parliament last week and president
frederik de klerk is using an undemocratic constitutional
measure to ram it into law, a move seen as severely denting
his image as a liberal reformer.

opposition members of parliament speculate the cabinet is
desperately trying to quash damning evidence likely to emerge
from a pending political trial.

democratic party member of parliament david gant says the
haste with which the bill is being pushed through amounts to
''procedural rape''.

he believes the reckless speed with which the government is
pushing the indemnities bill through is a measure of the
pressure the president is under from the security establishment.

conservative party members say the government is anxious to
prevent a trial, that may be held soon, from going ahead because
it can cause serious damage to national party office bearers.

conservative party (cp) member clive derby-lewis says he is
unable to pinpoint which trial his members have been referring
to.

''but there is something more to all of this which we are
not being told about. it must be very serious for de klerk to
bulldoze this through as hastily as he is'', derby-lewis told
ips late thursday.

the constitution allows the president's council -- a body
dominated by the ruling all-white national party in parliament
-- to force bills that have been rejected by the legislature
into law.

de klerk has never before used this mechanism to enact
legislation. his actions around the amnesty bill are probaly the
most authoritarian since he took over the presidency in
september 1989.

the president's move arises from fear of three judicial
processes now in the pipeline.

joe verster, former head of a now disbanded army hit squad,
has been threatening to take the south africa defence force to
the labour court for failing to provide him and some of his men
with adequate retrenchment packages. (more/ips)


south africa: amnesty (2)

it is widely believed that verster is in possession of
important secret documents that he is using these to force the
government into accepting demands for generous severance
packages for his men.

at a news conference in june, verster said a decision had
been taken by the government to disown his unit, the civil
cooperation bureau (ccb), and blame it for most crimes carried
out by the security forces.

''i know about certain meetings, where people came together
from the defence force and more than one government department,
where they decided to push the ccb in front and let it take the
rap'', verster told the news conference.

the generals who issued orders for the ccb are now being
looked after by the state, verster pointed out. his commander,
gen eddie webb, had been given a comfortable retirement package
and had already applied for indemnity against prosecution for
political crimes.

the inquest into the 1989 murder of academic david webster
is producing a string of evidence that links former members of
the ccb -- ferdi barnard, calla botha, chappie maree and staal
burger -- to the crime.

evidence has already been heard from retired police
gen jaap joubert about the way his investigations into the
murder were hampered by the sadf's former intelligence chief,
gen ''witkop'' badenhorst.

meanwhile, expert legal opinion sought by 'africa watch', an
international human rights group, suggests de klerk could be
breaking international law if he goes ahead with the general
amnesty.

'africa watch' points out that south africa is bound by the
norms of customary law in human rights developed since the
second world war, which requires the government to punish ''at
the very least those guilty of torture and extra-judicial
execution''.

''the implications for the character of a future regime if
this legislation becomes law are enormous and sinister'', says
'africa watch' in a latter to de klerk.

''if south africa is to move forward to a future of
reconciliation and nation-building, it must face more honestly
the question of accountability for past abuses'', adds the
human rights organisation. (end/ips/np/ek/apc/92)