'Give amnesty to everyone'

2007-08-17 13:31

Pretoria - Apartheid-era police minister Adriaan Vlok and four others given suspended sentences for attempted murder said on Friday the same amnesty requirements should apply to both former security force members and members of the ANC.

Vlok, former police chief Johan van der Merwe, former major-general Christoffel Smith and former colonels Gert Otto and Johannes van Staden pleaded guilty to the attempted murder 18 years ago of Rev Frank Chikane, then a leading anti-apartheid activist.

In a statement released at their trial on Friday, the five said the bitterness of the past still persisted and the divide between various communities was ever-increasing.

"Any person who does not recognise this, is living in a fool's paradise and has lost touch with reality."

Solution 'uncomplicated'

They said the solution was "appallingly uncomplicated".

"Simply apply the same requirements to qualify for amnesty that are applicable to members of the ANC and other organisations to ex-members of the security forces.

"Then come to an agreement that members of the National Executive Committee of the ANC and other political leaders will not be prosecuted in respect of incidents where amnesty has already been granted to other members of the ANC or other organisations."

They said the composition of the majority of the Truth and Reconciliation's amnesty committees favoured the ANC.

They further criticised the fact that the ANC's General Siphiwe Nyanda had been granted amnesty for incidents including landmines, having not made a full disclosure as was required.

They also called on the State not to prosecute General Basie Smit, whom they would be obliged to give evidence against should he be prosecuted.

"We would, however, like to emphasise that during the episode in question, General Smit had very recently taken over command of the security branch having been transferred from the detective branch.

"He found himself in an unfamiliar environment and culture and would have experienced difficulty in distinguishing between lawful powers and powers that, during the prevailing abnormal circumstances in the country, were emphatically or tactically implied by a higher authority."

They said that should his complicity be revealed, it would at most, be that of messenger.

- SAPA