From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 07 Sep 92 14:16 PDT
Subject: SOUTH AFRICA Dangers of Amnesty
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700433:000:5658
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Sep  7 14:16:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: SOUTH AFRICA Dangers of Amnesty

/* Written  5:17 pm  Sep  2, 1992 by web:aiacan in cdp:aia.samples */

SOUTH AFRICA: The Dangers of a General Amnesty

Cape Town, August 17, 1992 (AIA/Zubeida Jaffer) -- As the net
steadily closes on the killers of activist Matthew Goniwe (see
S920511i.SAF), the calls for a general amnesty to cover all forms
of past wrong-doing in South Africa are ringing out loud and
clear.

Ironically, they come at a time when the August report of the
human rights organisation Amnesty International has warned
strongly of the dangers of a general amnesty.

The organisation says amnesty laws which prevent the emergence of
truth and accountability before the law are not acceptable.

In a number of African and Latin American countries, governments
have granted former government and security officials immunity
from prosecution in order to speed up political settlements.

Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of the Western
Cape, Professor Kader Asmal, says a distinction must be made
between arrangements for advancing negotiations and for dealing
with the past.

He says the absolving of the South African military or police of
capital crimes, torture and ill-treatment through a general
amnesty would place them above the law, exempting them from
punishment for what would ordinarily be crimes.

"The Goldstone Commission or any other agency does not require the
introduction of an amnesty to investigate the past or present
activities of the South African Defence Force, the South African
Police or any regular or irregular military or police force in
South Africa. These are two distinct and different activities," he
says.

He believes it would be a tragic error of judgment if the issue of
political prisoners became muddled with the amnesty issue.

Recent press reports have suggested UN Secretary-General's
Representative Cyrus Vance has linked the release of the remaining
political prisoners to the declaration of a general amnesty.

Closer examination of the report presented to the Security Council
shows no such inference has been made.

In paragraph 62 of the report, Vance calls for the expeditious
resolution of the problem of political prisoners.

Surely the position of the remaining political prisoners cannot be
the subject of fresh negotiations when the matter was agreed to in
both the Groote Schuur and Pretoria Minutes says Asmal.

He argues there is a total lack of symmetry in the efforts of the
South African government to declare a general amnesty. "While
Umkhonto we Sizwe combatants, leaders and prisoners have either
served long sentences or sought individual indemnities for
previous acts or immunity from prosecution, what is sought for hit
squads, operatives of the State Security Council, perpetrators of
torture, killings and assassinations is a blanket amnesty for
undisclosed acts and for unidentified persons," he says.

In countries where general amnesties were declared, ordinary
citizens have taken it upon themselves to find ways to challenge
and lay bare past crimes.

Shortly after Brazilian President Figueiredo declared a general
amnesty in 1979, a few citizens closely connected to the church
decided to ensure that their country would never revert to the
earlier atrocities. Over a five- year period, they secretly copied
every file in the military archives. They later published the
horrific records of systematic torture, laying bare to the public
the truth of the awful period their country had lived through.
Their plan was recently documented by a staff writer of The New
Yorker, Lawrence Weschler, in his book "A Miracle, A Universe."

It cannot also be assumed that the declaration of a general
amnesty will bring to an end covert activities in South Africa.

British journalist Dr Joseph Hanlon points out in "Beggar Your
Neighbours," his account of South Africa's destabalisation of
Southern Africa, that the March 1984 Nkomati Accord did not end
covert activity in the region. The Mozambicans, he writes,
expelled the African National Congress and ended guerrilla access
to Mozambique. In return, South Africa shut down the radio station
of right-wing rebels Renamo.

Far from bringing peace, Nkomati brought an escalation of the war,
says Hanlon.

Based on studies of human rights violations in 142 countries,
Amnesty International has outlined three steps to be taken by
governments willing to put an end to human rights violations:

* There should be thorough investigations into all allegations of
human rights violations to determine individual and collective
responsibility and to provide a full account of the truth to the
victims, their relatives and society. Investigations must be
undertaken by impartial institutions, independent of the security
forces.

A public commission of inquiry should investigate the entire
pattern of abuses and the reasons behind them. It should examine
the agencies responsible and propose changes to laws,
institutions, administrative procedures and practices, training
and accountability of personnel.

* Those responsible should be tried and their trials should
conclude with a clear verdict of guilty or innocent.

* The interests of national reconciliation after a period of
violence may be served by pardons after conviction as long as the
truth is revealed and the judicial process completed.

The report says despite adoption of human rights declarations in
many countries, governments continue to turn a blind eye to gross
human rights violations. The phenomenon of impunity -- exemption
from punishment -- fuels this recurring pattern of abuse.

ENDS (840 WORDS)