South Africa: Compensate Victims of the Past

For Immediate Release

South Africa: Compensate Victims of the Past
Joint statement by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

(New York/ London, February 13, 2003) - The South African government
should urgently implement outstanding recommendations made by the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

"President Thabo Mbeki should use the opening of the 2003 parliamentary
session tomorrow to announce a program of reparations for victims and to
renounce any possibility of a further amnesty," the organizations urged.

In their briefing paper, "Truth and Justice: Unfinished Business in
South Africa," the two organizations also called on the South African
government to ensure swift public release of the two outstanding volumes
of the TRC's report and to strengthen the unit responsible for
prosecutions of apartheid-era crimes.

"There can be no further justification for the government to delay
implementing a reparations program, as has been urged for so long by
civil society organizations in South Africa," Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch said.

"Though they can't undo the past, reparations form an important
acknowledgement to victims of what happened - especially since so many
who committed abuses have been granted immunity from prosecution."

In addition, the participation of victims of human rights abuses in the
TRC process was critical for the integrity and credibility of this
experiment in addressing past human rights abuses, Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch pointed out. Many of the victims, furthermore,
had come to the Commission in urgent need of financial help.

There are also clear international obligations for states to provide
reparations, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation, for
victims of gross human rights violations," the organizations said.

Continuing political violence in KwaZulu-Natal province and the
persistence of police abuses highlight the need to combat impunity in
South Africa.

"The arguments used during South Africa's transition to justify granting
immunity from prosecution are no longer applicable," Human Rights Watch
and Amnesty International said, in reference to recent discussions that
the government might grant an extension to the limited amnesty, which
had been allowed through the TRC process.

"Rather than granting further amnesties, South Africa should strengthen
its efforts to bring human rights violators to justice," said the
organizations. "Those who chose not to apply to the TRC should not have
the opportunity of a second bite at the cherry."

"After the end of apartheid, some people argued that South Africa's
transition was too fragile to withstand a raft of prosecutions against
human rights abusers. Those arguments no longer apply, if they ever
did," they added.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged the government
to increase the capacity and resources of the national prosecuting
authority's special prosecution unit dedicated to following up cases
referred from the TRC.

Background
The TRC was established following the election of South Africa's first
democratic government in 1994. It was charged with preparing a record
of gross violations of human rights committed during "the conflicts of
the past" (dating back to 1960), making recommendations including for
the granting of reparations to the victims, and granting amnesty in
respect of "acts associated with political objectives" to individual
applicants who made full disclosure of what they had done.

The TRC published a five-volume report in 1998, which included extensive
findings and recommendations and identified more than 20,000 victims of
human rights violations. Though there has been progress on many of the
non-monetary recommendations, the proposed financial compensation
remains largely outstanding. A few prosecutions of former security force
personnel for apartheid-era crimes have taken place, but there were
significant failures in some of these trials.

Two additional volumes of the report, which would among other things
provide a more complete list of victims, were completed in 2002, but a
court case brought by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) against the TRC
has delayed publication for almost a year. The IFP was seeking
amendments to the TRC's findings that it had been responsible for gross
human rights violations. On January 29, 2003, the court case was
settled, with the agreement of the TRC to minor changes in the report
but leaving the core findings intact, removing the final obstacle to
publication and to implementation of a program of reparations.

The briefing paper is available at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/truthandjustice.htm

For more information, please contact:
In London, Mary Rayner (AI): +44 20 7413 5609
In Johannesburg, Bronwen Manby (HRW): +27 73 151 8988

--
Jeff Scott
Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Phone: +1-212-216-1834
Fax: +1-212-736-1300
http://www.hrw.org/africa/index.php
en français, http://www.hrw.org/french/africa/