OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm.
A FORMER member of the Afrikanerweerstandsbeweging (AWB) who boasts he planted at least 32 bombs in the run-up to the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, has been granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Dries Kriel was given indemnity from prosecution for a spate of bombings aimed at destabilising the country before the historic all-race elections, TRC spokesman Mdu Lembede said on Monday.
In testimony before the commission Kriel boasted that he had been the most prolific bomber of the era. “No other activist from any side has been involved in more bomb explosions than I have been,” he declared.
On Monday, on hearing that he had been pardoned, Kriel said simply “I am extremely grateful.”
Kriel was expelled from the AWB in 1997 but has gone on to become the secretary general of another Afrikaner right-wing movement, the Boereweerstandsbeweging. He intends writing a book, titled Diary of a White Terrorist, about his experiences as one of the militant rightwing’s chief insurrectionists.