Special Hearings — Conscription Hearings — 1997-07-23

PROF MEIRING: About half the commands in the SADF weregiven in English and about fifty percent of the commands weregiven in Afrikaans.  I think it's fitting that the concludingremarks should be in Afrikaans.  I won't use half the time.
 I think it's  important that we should just draw together a coupleof points and it also gives the interpreters a chance to showthat they are still awake and gives you the chance to put yourearphones on and you can listen to the interpretation.  I thinkit's important that we just pull these various thoughts togetherthat we were busy with to-day.  
 Yesterday in the media concern was expressed about to-day's hearingthat it would be a one-sided hearing, that the old defence forcesname would be muddied in the process in the putting forward ofonly one view.  That was not the idea of to-day's hearing.  Thediscussion about the defence force and the defence force as awhole and all those things, that is a discussion which can stillbe held but to-day the focus was on people in the defence force. 
 We started listening at the stories of Professor Seegers and Mr Gagiano who told us how various people were affected by thedefence force and it is so that many people to-day spoke of thepain and suffering  that the defence force caused them, but asMary Burton also said, the fact is that there were many peoplethat were entirely happy with the defence force and it's conductand that the defence force ideals were also theirs.  But the focusto-day fell on those people who were not happy with the DefenceForce and experienced grave problems with the defence force andwhat it stood for and it depicted the dilemmas of those peoplewho felt that they didn't fit into that structure, there was apossibility of passive resistance which Professor Johan Hattinghtold us about, there was the possibility of Tim Ledgerwood whosimply disappeared.  I don't know what AWOL is in Afrikaans buthe simply disappeared, and there was the possibility of exilewhich Doctor Nathan sketched for us.  
 But then there was also the problem that many young men had tograpple with and which many Afrikaans and English families hadto grapple with and that was the issue of conscientious objection,of saying I'm not going to play along with this.  It was a veryimportant and interesting distinction made between those two streamsof conscientious objectors.  
 Firstly, there was the religious perspective which was put, peoplefrom religious motivation objected and said I can't carry a gunand later on it had a more political connotation people who saidthat I cannot serve in this defence force and I cannot protectand defend this political dispensation.  What really moved mepersonally as at many of these Truth and Reconciliation Hearingsis the fact that we once again sat with photo albums on our lapsto-day and we simply paged through and saw photographs and picturesof different people, different situations and what incrediblephotographs we saw in those albums, photographs about the lifeof  a conscript as Craig Botha told us about; and Ian Liebenbergand Johan Hattingh; the terrifying picture which John Deegan toldus about Koevoet and Oshakati the pictures which he pasted intoour album.  There was my classmate, Neels du Plooy, who showedus the photograph of a military chaplain, and of many chaplainswho struggled and grappled with many issues.  
 We also saw photographs of what conscription and refusal to doconscription did to people.  We talked a lot about post traumaticstress disorder and the last word has not yet been spoken aboutthat.  I hope that you will find it hopeful that the R and R Committeewill consider many of these proposals about dealing with thissyndrome and disorder.  
 So we had one after the other revelations and stories and I thinkwhat moved me the most was John Deegan's story;  and there wasalso the story of Ivan Toms and Richard Steele.  I think the picturethat I will take home with me is the one of Ivan Toms in his tracksuitbecause he refused to wear a uniform and the young chaplain, JohanMarais who arrived in his defence force uniform and a simple mealof bread and water changed into Holy Communion which they sharedin a cell.  
 It seems to me as if to-day was also a healing experience ina certain sense for those who attended here.  That has been ourexperience at the Truth Commission Hearings that even though themajor political forces can say what they like about the TruthCommission for those people who really matter, for the victimsit is largely a healing experience and it was nice to hear thatfrom Tim and it was nice to hear that from John.  He verbalisedsomething to that effect that he came and revealed the truth andshared the shocking truth of the past with the people here.  
 I think Wendy also gave us a very important little glimpse anda little memory of something that up to now the Truth Commissionhas only heard stories of victims within South Africa, but there'sa large number of victims in Namibia and Angola and other partsof the world and their stories must also be considered and takenseriously.  Their suffering has not yet stopped.  If one thinksof landmines still under the earth and it often hurts the peoplewho deserve it the least children, women, old people etc.  
 We concluded by saying to each other that we have many lessonsto learn.  It was interesting that this morning we spoke in asort of academic vein about lessons to be learnt, about people'scritical perceptions which had to be fostered, that we shouldalso be very critical of Government etc., but fortunately we finallygot to the point, as practically illustrated by our last two speakers,that there are many practical things which can be done.  Thankyou very much for your input.  
 I would like to support your call that people in the servicemust make use of the services available, and perhaps I shouldconclude by saying that the ultimate responsibility is rests onall of us.  
 The Truth Commission moves from one phase to another in the lastcouple of months.  Most of the work of the Truth Commission wasin revealing the truth which is often a very painful truth andfor the next couple of months the emphasis will have to fall onreconciliation and all the programmes in that context, how tofoster reconciliation amongst all the people in this country andfor that reason we need the commitment of all the people in SouthAfrica.  
 May I say this, as a White South African, something which reallyworries me is the absence of so many White people at the TruthCommission's Hearings.  To-day it was different, to-day we hadmany White faces present here because what we were doing hereto-day was talking about the experiences of White families, Afrikaansand English-speaking White families, but at most of these TRChearings we often saw the very sad absence of White faces andthat is really, really a very sorry state of affairs.  We oweit to the country and to the future to be courageous enough toturn the pages of our photograph albums and looking of the photographsof the past so that we can build a better country in the future. 
 Tim moved us all with his last quote and I'll read it again. My children are very fond of Shinad O'Conner and I think manypeople in this country listen to her music and let us rememberwhat she said:
"If there ever is going to be healing there has to be remembranceand then grieving, so that there can be forgiving there has tobe knowledge and understanding."
 I think to-day made some contribution in this direction, thankyou very much for your presence.