ANC Rejects Amnesty for Security Forces

The African National Congress said Monday it rejects a blanket amnesty for government security forces because it would absolve killers and torturers.

The country’s main black opposition group was responding to a call last week from the white minority government for amnesty for all members of the security forces and black resistance groups for any politically motivated offenses.

The ANC said that an amnesty could only be granted to security force members who provided information to help expose past crimes and halt political violence.

“To absolve the South African military or police of capital crimes, torture or ill treatment through a general amnesty law places its members above the law,” the ANC said in a statement.

The ANC wants a full disclosure of any illegal acts by the security forces. Government forces have been implicated in killings and beatings of anti-apartheid activists in the past.

“Crimes against humanity are the most serious crime in international law. The way a general amnesty is being presented equates the acts of those who opposed apartheid with the acts carried out to maintain this vile system,” the ANC said.

The ANC pulled out of power-sharing talks in June to protest political violence in black townships. It is demanding an interim government and other concessions as the condition for returning to the talks.

The violence continued over the weekend. Police said Monday that at least 18 people were killed in factional violence during that period, including four black police officers shot in a gun battle and burned to death.

Alarmed by the violence, the U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously authorized the urgent stationing of U.N. observers in South Africa to help end the bloodshed but left it to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to decide how many should be sent.

In a report published Aug. 7, Boutros-Ghali recommended the dispatch of about 30 observers to work closely with the National Peace Secretariat, set up under a national peace accord signed last September by all South Africa’s main political parties, trade unions, religious groups and civic organizations.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since 1990 in violence in black townships, largely between supporters of the ANC and its main rival, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party.