Eddie Koch
The confession by a group of policemen=20 about their role in the killing of Steve=20 Biko and the grisly assassination of at=20 least nine other anti-apartheid activists=20 from the Eastern Cape has focussed renewed=20 local and international attention on the=20 main themes and controversies shaping the=20 work of the truth commission.
The revelations about who killed Biko, a=20 figure who has become an icon of oppression=20 under apartheid, have now established=20 beyond doubt that the commission has become=20 an effective instrument for extracting the=20 truth from those who assassinated and=20 murdered at random under National Party=20 rule.
With details now pouring out about the=20 murders of the Cradock Four, the Pebco=20 Three and Siphiwe Mtimkulu, the truth body=20 can effectively claim to have prised open=20 the grim secrets inside South Africa of=20 almost every major assassination and=20 massacre of the apartheid era — bar the=20 mystery that still surrounds the murder of=20 David Webster, the Boipatong Massacre, and=20 the identities of those who carried out a=20 spate of random attacks on black train=20 commuters and township residents during the=20 negotiations that led to the 1994 election.
But there are now signs that the role of=20 the military’s secret squads — a group=20 who, unlike the police, have so far=20 remained impregnable to truth commission=20 probes — is likely to be prised out of=20 the perpetrators. This month the=20 commission’s investigative unit announced=20 it was working on information contained in=20 the Steyn Report. There is sufficient=20 detail — including the names of dozens=20 of agents linked by the old government’s=20 intelligence services to murder and other=20 dirty tricks — in this document for the=20 truth body to begin a prosecutorial=20 process, in collaboration with the=20 attorneys general, that could put some of=20 these people in jail for a long time unless=20 they come clean and apply for amnesty (see=20 accompanying story).
But while the commission is effectively=20 showing its ability to uncover the truth,=20 the other side of its coin remains=20 concealed.=20
The naming of Biko’s killers, a hero of the=20 black consciousness movement whose members=20 reject the right of perpetrators to obtain=20 immunity in return for full confessions,=20 has galvanised opposition from the Pan=20 Africanist Congress and the Azanian Peoples=20 Organisation to the amnesty provisions of=20 the truth process.
Statements from many of the families of the=20 Eastern Cape activists who were murdered by=20 the ten policemen applying for amnesty=20 indicate demands for the truth to be=20 followed by justice, rather than for=20 justice to be traded in exchange for truth,=20 is the most popular rallying call among=20 those groups who suffered the brunt of=20 human rights abuse in the apartheid period.
And, perhaps more disturbing, is that the=20 commission sometimes reinforces this=20 complaint by neglecting the feelings and=20 needs of victims’ families in its=20 determination to show its truth side. A=20 number of the relatives of those who were=20 killed in the Eastern Cape by special=20 branch operatives complained that they=20 either heard this week’s grisly details=20 through the media or were only informed at=20 the eleventh hour of the press conference=20 in Port Elizabeth where they were=20 announced.