Special Hearings — Conscription Hearings — 1997-07-23

MR BRUCE: Thank you.  I'm here on behalf of somebody,somebody who couldn't be here.  He was mentioned earlier on byJohn Deegan, he's a man called Marius van Niekerk.  Marius, thevision of SAVA is something that was born in Marius's mind I thinka long time ago when he found that things he was suffering from,the kinds of things he wanted to be silent about or hide or denyor run from or tell lies about as he went through his life, hediscovered were things he shared with thousands and thousandsof other young men and ex-combatants who had throughout the country,throughout the world in fact and through all time.  I think thatset Marius off on a process of trying heal himself by tellingthis story.  He in himself by telling this story and trying tohelp others to find the same kind of relief I think.   He wentthrough many forms of trying to tell the story.  He tried writingfilms, making documentaries and that is how I met him many yearsago.  We had some things in common.   I was a paratrooper trainedas a paratrooper like he was but I had done my border stints before1976 and in 1976 had gone into exile.  So Marius and I sharedan exile and we shared some little bits of background and we becamevery close.  One of the things that came out of our associationwas a play about the anger and the pain of an ex-combatant.
 Marius has asked me to present his idea, you can say all thathe's been through has gown up into this idea of SAVA for him thisafternoon.  I think first of all SAVA has to be seen as a vision,it's an idea, it's an idea waiting to be born and I think Johnhas very powerfully already spoken about the necessity of it'sbeing born.  The great need for it and I think everybody who spokehere this afternoon Tim, Ian all of them have spoken more thanI can say about the necessity of creating an association wherepeople can get together to share what they need to share, to beable to tell their stories.  Because I think that's working fromthe point that the Truth Commission can begin something like thatbut it cannot carry it forward as it must go forward, somethingelse has to happen.  
 I'm just going to read something of the background of the wayI'd like to approach the vision.  What we've seen to-day is thewounds of war are not only the visible ones and I think ColonelBotha has also spoken of what has happened to people physically,but we have also to-day heard a great deal about the psychologicaland the moral hurts that in the end do most of the damage, havea great deal long-term damage both to individuals, to their familiesand ultimately to the society he belongs to.  There are literallyhundreds of thousands of ex-combatants of this SADF, Umkhonto,APLA and clan out there, each harbouring their own sense of guiltor feelings of betrayal who experienced constant invasions ofparalising memories, nightmares and hallucinations who are stillwondering why they survived and a buddy did not.   Who are unableto allow themselves to feel love or tenderness ,who turn violentor fall into deep depressions for no reason, who cannot hold ajob or keep a relationship going, who have turned to drink ordrugs for solace, who are afraid of their own shadow, who feelthat life is empty and meaningless.  
 These amongst others are symptoms of a condition that followsexposure to highly traumatic life threatening value destroyingevents such as can occur in even the briefest hostile contactof any war.  Neither the Government of any Southern African countrynor any NGO's are taking care of the needs of these traumatisedveterans.  
 Research on PTSD in this country, we've heard a lot about PTSDI think everyone what it is by now, in this country is minimaland what has been done has so far been largely ignored.  Thisis a cause of great concern for those who are aware of the enormityof the issue.  Doctor Jacqueline Kok of Wits Sociology Departmentwrote the following response to an enquiry by Marius.  
"My research in retrenched SADF soldiers and MK soldiersreveals that many are suffering from PTSD and are receiving nohelp from any source. The accumulative results of this neglectcould be devastating in the future." 
 Diane Sandler, a Cape Town based Clinical Psychologist who treatsPTSD sufferers wrote, 
"The issue is one of secrecy and avoidance in the South Africancommunity both Black and White.  The clear need for therapeuticintervention has not been systematically addressed, it's veryoften been fobbed off as well.
 I think there was also a perception amongst ANC people for quitea long time that would be no trauma amongst the Umkhonto peoplebecause they won the war.  This is not so, it's been proved notso.  I think that Doctor Kok's research has shown quite definitelythat MK soldiers suffer some of them more so because of very extremeconditions from this condition.  
 Then Gary Koen whom you heard speak this morning, I will justread something that he wrote to us as well.  
"The debilitating nature of PTSD the insidious manner inwhich it distorts the individuals perception of life, the isolationwhich can ensue and then ultimately the return to violence asa last way of escaping the helplessness and fear that such a syndromeincludes.  What is further true of the South African conditionis the distinct lack of public awareness that there were any consequences." 
 The Ambassador to Sweden De Swardt said that,
"The present crime rate often involving senseless violencegoes beyond socio-economic reasons and at times seems impossibleto understand.  PTSD may have more to do with it than that doneis generally realised.  I think that is also something of a socialconsequence which we have with the individual consequence andthe social consequence. " 
 To end off I would like to just quote the words of a highly trainedveteran who described himself as a "well oiled killing machine". He had tried over thirteen times to kill himself but that wasthe one person he couldn't manage to kill, and he finally gaveup and removed himself from society to live in isolation in thecountry because, as he said, "I can't control myself anymore,how can I expect society to control me."  
 The problems many individuals are dealing with continue to belife threatening, that is what people take with them, the despair,the depressions, the hyper vigilance can at times be life threateningor threatening to the people who are closest to the veteran sufferingfrom this condition.  There's a statistic in America which showsthat over six hundred thousand ex-Vietnam veterans have committedsuicide since the end of that war.  That is more than the number,far more than the number who died fighting in the war.  
 The social implications are just as penetrating, family is disruptedor destroyed by violence, depression, work, dysfunction and drink. Also veterans who do not get help with their social and psychologicalproblems often continue to do what they are trained to do.  Thesemen make ready gunmen for the hundreds of crime syndicates nowoperating in post-apartheid South Africa.  There's often no alternative. It's an enormous problem with devastating consequences and nothingis being done, either for the individuals or about the socialresults, nothing at all.  
 SAVA is a vision that's why SAVA I think, that's why Marius hascome to this idea and I think his original intention to help himselfhas grown into this idea and I think what lies behind it, themodel that he's used is something in America that is known asVietnam Veterans for America and what these people have done,they've created chapters of selfhelp groups in communities anddistricts where the veterans get together and share their problems. There's more to it than that, they also will set up programmesthings that need to be done for healing like going to help, manyof them find the funding to go back to Vietnam and help peoplein Vietnam.  
 John mentioned going up to where he was involved to make a film,to help out perhaps with the communities that are there and thesekind of things  is what this group has now been able to do.  It'sa structure that in a sense it fits very well with our RDP thinkingin a certain sense, it gives the onus to the veterans themselvesand it's also based on the fact that I think veterans can probablyhelp veterans better than anyone else can help them because ofthe understanding of the experiences.  That is something alsoidentified by Marius.  
 In terms of the American experience, I have a quote from oneof the leaders of this organisation in America and he starts offby saying, 
"The description of your experiences sound like many of thoseVietnam veterans.  Our strength is the personal affinity, (thestrength of these self help groups), is the personal affinitybetween our members within our local chapter organisations.  Thenature of those local chapters creates an environment where healingcan and does take place."  
 I think that is what Marius has been trying very hard for a verylong time to sell in this country with a great deal of moral supportfrom a number of people, from people who know and understand whatthe condition is about, but very little really support in thesense of being able to put something together where people canactually, as John asked if they make it possible to bring thesegroups together to start this structure working.  
 I know that John has said that there is a Constitution.    There'salso a number of goals have been identified.  Do I have the timeto talk about the goals that have already been mentioned?  I summarisethem, okay.  We'll just go very quickly through them.  
 The selfhelp programme is the very first one.  Then there's thingslike we talked also about monuments, the wall of remembrance thatmeans a wall with as many names or all the names if possible ofall the people who fell in that war from all sides.  That wouldbe something that I think we feel would bring a great deal towardsa kind of reconciliation which we're seeking.  And the other thingabout the self help groups is that it's not only for people whowere in Umkhonto or people who were in SADF but people from allsides, that too I believe would have an extremely health givingeffect and reconciliatory effect for our society.  The beliefthere being that the more we can reconcile one individual withhis past the more we can reconcile the problems of our society. The wall of remembrance is the one then.  
 There's the banning of landmines, that SAVA would support thecampaign which is an international campaign to completely banthe use of landmines or the manufacture of them.  
 Other relief projects.  SAVA would itself initiate other reliefprojects, for instance in helping local populations in ex-operationalareas with things like tree planting, reconstruction work, locatingundocumented graves etc., whatever programme you could put upto help those people.  
 The individual memberships, members would pay a fee so that therewould be to some extent a kind of self-funded bodies.  They wouldstill need help obviously from Government because people withsevere PTSD would need professional help and there would alsoneed to be people trained I think, field workers trained to goand to be able to facilitate and to help people.  
 Also to have a central office that produces and distributes literature,brochures, information sheets, films, videos, anything that willhelp people to understand their situation and to go forward. The same office should have a locater and reunion service thatis looking for people, investigating all the missing and presumedkilled, names.  All that needs to be done.  Finding people whoneed to find each other again that also in terms of healing people. 
 Long term aims and objectives, their office would work to spreadknowledge about PTSD throughout the social and medical professions. That's something that is sorely needed because that's somethingthat is at the moment understood or the awareness is very small. The office should establish working  relations with the churchesbecause I think spiritual healing is also very much a part ofwhat people need at this point.  As the number of self-help groupsgrow and the work of the office expands a non-profit making charitableorganisation would need to be constituted.  I think that's thedream eventually, is the actual NGO that can be formed.  
 A link with the official military medical services should beestablished at an early stage, that should be done fairly soon. Guidance in selecting adequately skilled professional consultantsand therapists should be offered to veterans who seek such help. 
 A special training programme in PTSD treatment for interestedclinicians, so that there's something set up for people to comeand learn about.  Programmes for the training of field workerswhich I've already mentioned.  Assistance with jobs.  Family andchild care support and the main aim is what is needed is an integrateddisciplinary care for the whole person to be able to look at theman as a whole and to help him in all the aspects of his life.