Special Hearings — Political Party Recalls — UNKNOWN

SATHYANDRANATH RAGUNANAN MAC MAHARAJ: May I Mr Chairperson, I am sorry to hold you up, may I just mention one other factor that needs to be taken into consideration. That is our request that informers in the Cabinet be made known. This is a high office. The government needs to enjoy the confidence of the people, and allegations have been made and we need to take into consideration the high office that people may be occupying, because then I think that it is appropriate that with due consideration of the person being named, that the matter could be made public because I think it serves to reinforce the process of building ...(indistinct).

CHAIRPERSON: Hanif?

MR VALLY: Thank you Archbishop. I am going onto a new topic which is "Disappearances". I am not going to go into it in detail. We thank the ANC for the list that has been provided to us of those members who died in exile and those who died in combat. However we've got a number of requests at our hearings regarding family members who believe that their family members may be with the ANC or may have been with the ANC. In some cases people claim they have information from the ANC that the family members died and they don't believe them. In other cases it's possible the family member died in combat or it's also possible that the family member was in exile but not with the ANC. But because these requests are on-going I think it will be best if we submit it to the ANC in writing. No purpose will be served in presenting it to you now.

UNKNOWN: If I may Chairperson, I appreciate the point that Mr Vallye is making because indeed there have been many instances of people coming directly to us in the firm belief that their relatives were with us when in fact they were not. There is one very well known case - there's that famous picture of a student carrying the body of Hector Petersen, now that student ended up in Nigeria, I was with him in Nigeria when he came there as a student. He was in that group of students but he was not in the ANC, and when the students left, completed, he vanished there, but the belief that he was with us and so you will see - that kind of thing keeps happening. The point that you are making that in many instances many or some of these people anyway went with the ANC, the assumption that they were is wrong. So it would indeed help if we had these names so that we can track as best as we can. We would be willing, and this has happened before, also to assist with regard to those people who were not with us and to the extent that we were able to participate in helping in that search we will certainly do that.

MR VALLY: Thank you very much. Let's go to a new subject. The issue I will discuss now is under the broad heading "Military Operations", but I want to start off by looking at the Geneva Convention, specifically Protocol 1, additional to the Geneva Convention of the 12th of August 1949 relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts 1977. This was the Protocol which was signed by the ANC and I believe they are justifiably proud that they were the first liberation movement to sign it in 1980. I want to just draw the ANC's attention to certain sections which are relevant to the questioning in this area. I refer specifically to Article 51,
"51.2 The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians shall not be the object of attack, acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror amongst the civilian are prohibited.
51.3 Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this section unless and for such time as they take a direct part in the hostilities.
51.4 Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are
a. those which are not directed at a specific military objective;
b. those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
c. those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this protocol, and consequently in each such case are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians, or civilian objects without distinction".
Now those are the particularly relevant sections I want to deal with when I come to the issue of bombing, planting of bombs by the ANC.
If one looks at the first submission by the ANC, page 52, and the resolutions taken at the Kabwe Conference, President Tambo, on page 52, first paragraph, left-hand column, I will just read the last sentence, if there's any other sections that you want to draw our attention to please feel free, made a statement at a press conference;
"The distinction between "hard" and "soft" targets is going to disappear in an intensified confrontation in an escalating conflict".
The direct result of the resolution taken at the Kabwe Conference, and there are a number of other quotes by, amongst others, Chris Hani, on the issue, resulted in a lot more bombs being planted closer or near residential areas. 	My first question, and I say this because of the ANC's own position later on, my first question is, wasn't this blurring of the distinction between "hard" and "soft" targets in direct contravention of those subsections of the Geneva Convention, Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention which I just read which the ANC signed in 1980, bearing in mind that the resolutions from the Kabwe Conference were taken in 1985?