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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1102996.000
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 14WORLDComing Clean?
The government and the A.N.C. deal with the uses and abuses
of power
The charge of "Violence foe the sake of violence" brought by
an African National Congress commission of inquiry was not the
familiar litany of human-rights abuses aimed at the usual
target, the South African government. Instead the report
detailed violence and torture within the A.N.C. itself. The
inquiry was ordered by A.N.C. president Nelson Mandela to settle
allegations by former detainees of atrocities committed against
them by the A.N.C.'s security department in its detention camps.
Conceding that the abuses had violated the A.N.C.'s own code of
conduct, Mandela promised the report would be considered "as a
matter of grave urgency."
While the A.N.C. was admitting its abuse of power, South
African President F.W. de Klerk was pushing a bill through
Parliament that would allow unelected persons to be appointed
to the Cabinet, opening the way for blacks in the government for
the first time. But De Klerk had less success with a law giving
amnesty for undetailed politically motivated crimes. The bill
was vetoed by opposition M.P.s. De Klerk could still railroad
the bill through his President's council, circumventing
Parliament. But that, said the a.n.c., would only demonstrate
his desperation to cover up the crimes of apartheid.