But 'Fought Just War'

E EPISCOPAL CHURCHPEOPLE for a FREE SOUTHERN AFRICA c 339 lafayette Street, New York,' N.Y. ,0012·2725 s (21 2} 4 n .aoaa rAX : c212 > 9 '9 -1 o1 3 A founded Z2 June Z956 #175 30 Augu_st 1996 ANC admits abuses but 'fought just war' MARY BRAID course of the just war of national "Of course. there is a world Cape Town liberation do not constitute of difference between the vio 'gross violations of human lence of the oppressor and the The African National Congress rights' as defined by the act es oppressed," said Dr Boraine. yesterday made its fullest con tablishing and mandating the "The Dutch resistance fighters fession of human rights viola TRC," he said. Even "neck to Nazi occupation knifed and tionsbutarguedthatthere~ lacing", he said, had to be seen killed but they were heroes no moral equivalency between against the background of in against an abhorrent system. its acts of violence and those of stitutionalised state violence. The fact is this commission is the apartheid government. The ANC had adopted the not about justice. It is about Thabo Mbeki, the country's .armed struggle only after truth and reconciliation and president-in-waiting, presented decades of futile peaceful lob national healing. Any other ap the Truth and Reconciliation bying. It was "a last, rather than proach would have split this Commission (TRC), the body first, resort", he said. The or country in half." which was created to heal the ganisation had always resisted He said the commission nation by Jaying bare the abus could only be understood es of the apartheid years, with against the background of a ne a 100-page report which in gotiated settlement. "If the cluded a list of 34 members who struggle had been won on the were executed by the ANC in battlefield there would have Angolan training camps and an been a victor and vanquished admission that some cadres and the victor would have dic were killed after being falsely ac tated terms." cused of spying. Dr Boraine said that in spite After Mr Mbeki's three-hour of yesterday's testimony Mr testimony, Archbishop Des Mbeki understood that vacating mond Tutu, the Commission's the moral high ground was the chairman, congratulated the price the ANC had paid for the ANC on being the first party to peaceful transition of power. use the word "sorry". The Yesterday the ANC said it ac ANC's evidence came the day af cepted "collective responsibil ter FW de Klerk, the former ity" for the violence it had president and leader of the Na Mbekl: Armed struggle was a orchestrated. This contrasted tionalist Party (NP), offered a 'last, rather than first, resort' sharply with Mr de Klerk's re qualified apology to the nation fusal to take responsibility for for apartheid and past mistakes. internal pressure to target murders carried out by the se The NP submission~ short "soft" civilian targets. curity forces although he ad on detail. Mr de Klerk denied Mr Mbek.i's bid for recogni mitted the NP had created the aJJ knowledge of State-backed hit tion of the ANC's moral high conditions which allowed them squads, and preferred to focus ground flies in the face of the to take place. on the "terrorist" bombings and act which established the com While its view that ANC vi attacks carried out by the AN C. mission, and which was the olence had no special legitimacy Yesterday Mr Mbeki said that cornerstone of the deal bro may go unchallenged, the NP the commission's investigation kered by the NP and the ANC can expect some tough ques into human rights abuses must to end white minority rule. tioning on the limits of re take into account that apartheid Dr Alex Boraine, deputy sponsibility when the political was "one of the most odious and chairman of the commission parties return to the commission vicious political systems of the said that the act made no dis later this year. Yesterday Mr Bo 20th century''; a system judged tinction between the violence raine warned that he could not by the United Nations to be a from either side. He and other accept Mr de Klerk's distinction crime against humanity. commissioners had no choice between the government and its "The oveJWhelming majori but to suppress their sympathy functionaries. "They were as ty of actions carried out in the with Mr Mbeki's point of view. one," he said. THE INDEPENDENT • FRIDAY 23 AUGUST 1996 -t Priest testifies on bombing Bl jOH~YELD him to SUI'\~ve those bleak, soon after coming lo Lesotho and painful weeks after the attack. for some time headed the ANC When the anf\Uished memories Father Lapsley came to a halt, unit at the University of Lesotho, be..-ome too painful and tears well temporarily choked by emotion. where mr invoiYernl'llt ron uncontrollablr in their eyes, mam· Durinj:\ hi> testimom; Lapsler remed education, pastoral and sur..-irors tesiifl·ing to ·th,, Truth described in p;raphic detail the ter theological matters. and Reconciliation Commission rible ordeal that followed the "When I applied for member reach for the box of tis.,ues placed bomb blast in Harare in April ship of the ANC, it symbolically thoughtfully on the table in front 1990. Ordained in Australia, he represented taking citizenship of of them. became a member of the Anglican a South Abica which we were still But what do you do if vou religious order, the Society of the fighting for." have a set of brighi stainles.<-steel Sacred Mission. After being sent During 1979 and 1980 he was claw> instead of hands - hands by the order to study at the Uni "dernonised" bv articles in The blown off in a horror letter-bomb versitY of Natal in 1973, he Gtizen newspaf>er and the right attack that also left you blind in beanie national chaplain for wing Aida Parker Newsletter, one eve? Anglican studl'!lts in 1976. Lapsley said. In December 1982 other disfif\UTed \~ctims and "Although I was aware of the he was visiting his family in New SUI'\~vors have alreadr testified to evils of apartheid and was part Zealand and fortuitously the commission's hUman rights of anti-racist activity in Aus escaped the SADF raid on SUIVJVOR: Michael JJzpsley testifying in Kimbrrley /a,t week. violations conunittee during its tralia, I was a convinced pacifist Maseru in which a number of dt "I regarded myself as part of the struggle against apartheid" first half-dozen public hearings, when I came to South Africa," he izensdied. and more will surely follow in the said. "On my return to Lesotho, the tralia and spent another three "It is part of mr \ictor\' to months to come. "I soon discovered, however, church authorities argued that I mooths recuperating at the Prinre have been able to retUrn to sOuth I But none has brought home that it is not pa1Sib1e to be neutr.d:l had probably been a target of the of Wales Hospital in Sydney. Africa and to live my life as full, ·1 more forcefully the appalling mini;;tered to students from all attack and expressed fear that if I During November 1990, and as joyfully as possible The , le~acv of violenre that engulfed backgrounds and realised that if remained in Lesotho, there could approximately seven months grare of God and the heir of pt'('- ! Sout), Africa in recent decades you were whill' and did nothing be further SADF raids and afll'r the attack. he returned to pie of faith and good"ill ha; · than maimed Anglican priest to change the situation. you in fact attacks. I was therefore effectively HMare. After being granted enabled me not to become a pn; Michael Lapsley during his testi became a functionary of compelled to leave Lesotho for indemnity, hevisill'd South Africa oner of hatred but rather to grow mom· in Kimberle\' this week_ apartheid. this reason." for six weeks during the middle in my faith. compassion and com Highly articuiate and out '1 was not involved in any In 1983 Lapsley settled in of the following year and moved mitment to justice." wardlr calm. the New Zealand political organisation but regard Harare, where he remained until permanently to this country in When he had completed his born ·priest recalled the broad ed myself as part of the struggle the explosion in 1990. '1 remained Februaty 1992. testimon\', conunission chainnan events of his life to the point against apartheid." ronscious throughout and experi Since Februruy 1993 he has An:hbisliop Desmond Tutu said where the letter bomb-OJilCmied Because of his particular theo enced excruciating pain. Friends been chaplain to the Trauma Cen "He has been an icon ... a li\in~ in a religious magazine- explod logical leanings and teachings, took me to hospital." tre for Victims of Violence and example of the kind ot thing ed in his hands as he opened his Lapsley inrurred the wrath of the After treatment at a private Torture in Woodstock. Lapsley we're lr}ing tc> help be incarnated post. South Abican authorities and was clinic he was transferred to told the conunission he regarded in our counlr}. I'm very d""rh But when he recalled how it served with a deportation order. Harare's main hospital, where he himself as a "victor over humbled and proud that ~1ichaei had been the overwhelming sup He went to Lesotho, where he underwent operations through apartheid" and not simply as a is no.,.. a priest in m\' dioet>se, and port of his family, both personal trained priests for the Anglican out the night.

Load more