Human Rights Violation Hearings — East London — 1997-06-10

MR SANDI: Are there any specific requests that you would like to raise to this Commission so that it can pass them over to the State President and his colleagues?
MR BELLING (SNR): As far as I'm concerned the ball is in the court of the Government, okay.  I say previous and present Government the ball is in their court and they must just pay out to compensate because there is an Act here that is in one of my statements.  There is a Terrorists Act.  I've got that Act in here where they should be paid out in any Terrorist activities and so on.  I've got it here.  I've given all these to the Commission too, everything is there.  If you want to at some stage I can go through it with you to point these things out and so on you know then I can explain better on the issue.

MR SANDI: Are you talking about the Law pertaining to compensation to victims of terrorism?
MR BELLING (SNR): That's right.

MR SANDI: We'll talk a lot more about that when you show us the documents.  Is there any other specific request that you would like to ... (interrupted)
MR BELLING (SNR): I would like to request to the Commission and you can pass that over, that these folks get compensated which I feel is no more than fair that they get compensated for their injuries.  Take a case like him now or anyone else as a matter of fact I'd like to talk on behalf of the other folks too but being injured like this is not funny.  In to-day's time the cost of living is going up and up heavily.  What's it going to cost in another twenty five or thirty years time.  Terrible.  You know this is not funny.  They can get that out they can sort something out.  He can work on something that he can keep himself occupied.  Do you understand?  To make a little business or whatever he wants to do with it.  He can keep himself occupied.  At the moment he can't work and he's on a very small pension from the Company which is very good.  He's only on a very small paid pension and he can't live on that and then there's the medical aid which is assisting him yes but there is certain amounts he's got to pay out and he pays out of the pension side of it so what does he really get out of his pension?  Nothing he's sitting and battling.  So he needs that compensation which I feel is no more than right that the Government pay out.

MR SANDI: I'm sorry for the interruption Mr Belling, before we conclude and I hand you over to the Chairman I see that in the statement there's something about psychological treatment.  Would you like to explain that very briefly?
MR BELLING (SNR): Yes, he was sent in for psychological treatment to sort of rehabilitate his mind and so on.  Coming from that area of shock that they went through has actually built up a lot of trauma in these guys and still now it's never to be forgotten.  He did go to Doctor Woods and he went on treatment and then Doctor Woods said that there's nothing much that they can do for the simple reason that it's got to be dealt with by him personally that he himself is the only one who can rehabilitate himself and sort it out.  This was after Doctor Woods had gone through him.  I can give you the name too.  Doctor Woods.   Treatment did not improve any symptoms at all.  He did not improve after the treatment he had with the Psychologists.  So he did go through all that and the specialist turned around and said he'll have to go through with it but how long it's going to take him is another story but these guys cannot forget the stuff.

MR SANDI: Thank you very much Mr Belling Senior and Mr Belling Junior.  If there are any issues or information that you've forgotten to convey to the Commission you have time to do so when my colleagues from the panel ask questions.  Thank you very much Sir, thank you Mr Chairman.

BONGANI FINCA: June Crichton?

JUNE CRICHTON: Mr Belling Junior I just want to make a statement first and then ask you a question.  I really do admire your courage in coming forward to-day considering the pain that you are in now.  I want to clarify one thing, you are getting a disability grant is that correct?
MR BELLING (JNR): I'm not getting a disability grant I'm getting a pension from my work.

JUNE CRICHTON: You're getting a pension from your work. Right.  The second thing is just to ask you quite a personal question relating to how you actually feel about this matter yourself.  We've heard a lot from your father about his feelings about it, can you just tell me what you feel even if it's contradictory to what your father might have said.
MR BELLING (JNR): I feel very bitter about it.  As my father said I've got no social life and I'm the age of twenty four now.  I see my friends go ahead enjoying their life which I can't do at this stage.

JUNE CRICHTON: Your father mentioned that should there be compensation you might consider having a small business .. (end of tape)

BONGANI FINCA: Just one question to Mr Neville Belling Junior.  It's a question about your attitude towards this process of perpetrators of extreme acts of violence coming forward to own up to what they've done, what will your feeling be when a person who is responsible for destroying your life in the manner in which  it has been destroyed if you were to come forward and confess and ask for amnesty?
MR BELLING (JNR): I don't in my opinion feel that they should get amnesty.  If they knew what we went through, the pain and the suffering, the pain you can't explain it's unexplainable I can't explain the pain I went through.  There were days when I felt as if I was dying and I was dying at some stage and it's hard to forgive a person for that for what they'd done.

BONGANI FINCA: Your attitude would be that having gone through what you have gone through those who are responsible for these acts must face the consequences of that by going to jail and serving their full sentence?
MR BELLING (JNR): Yes, I do.

BONGANI FINCA: Mr Belling Senior you are a father to your son and you are able to articulate the pain that the family has gone through, I would want to direct the same question to you.  How do you see this?
MR BELLING (SNR): I see it in the same light because they knew before they went there what their intentions were ... (interrupted)