co-operate with truth body
Mungo Soggot
JOHN Lloyd, the former activist who gave evidence which led to the hanging of the 1964 station bomber John Harris and which prompted the British Labour Party to scupper his political career, has apologised “unreservedly” and agreed to co-operate with the truth commission.
Fellow Armed Resistance Movement (ARM) member Hugh Lewin, one of Lloyd’s harshest critics, recently called on Lloyd to give evidence to the commission.
In a letter to the Mail & Guardian this week, Lloyd rejected an accusation by Lewin in this newspaper earlier this year that he had “never apologised to those he gave evidence against or shown public contrition”. Lloyd says: “For my part, I unreservedly apologise to Hugh. It is the greatest regret of my life that I lacked the moral strength to resist in November 1964. I said so publicly in The Guardian in August 1965 and I say so publicly again. I would be most willing to co-operate with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”
In a British Sunday newspaper, Lewin, who has accepted a post at the commission, was quoted as saying: “There can be no reconciliation, no question of redemption, no question of forgiveness.”
Lloyd notes: “If he has now changed that view, I welcome it.” Lewin is in Holland and could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this month the British Labour Party refused to sanction Lloyd’s application to stand as a parliamentary candidate. After months of research, the party’s general secretary, Tom Sawyer, and a five-member panel found that Lloyd’s lack of openness over his role in Harris’s execution had brought into question his credibility and integrity as a candidate.
Lewin was seen as playing a major role in alerting the Labour Party to Lloyd’s past. When Lloyd was released after giving evidence against Harris and the other young white members of the ARM, he went to Britain, where he refused to assist in a campaign to save Harris’s life.