Archbishop Desmon Tutu asks for a moratorium on Vlok (Apartheid Reconciliation prosecutions)

Christelle Terreblanche
July 22 2007 at 09:48AM

It might seem an improbable event - the former chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, making a last-ditch appeal to President Thabo Mbeki to place a moratorium on post-TRC prosecutions of apartheid perpetrators.

Yet this is what played out behind the scenes last week, just days before the long arm of the law finally fingered members of the high chain of apartheid command, who have largely escaped the truth commission process.

Notwithstanding the appeals, Adriaan Vlok, the former police minister, and Johann van der Merwe, his police chief, this week were charged, along with three other foot soldiers, by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for their alleged role in the 1989 poisoning of Reverend Frank Chikane, now the director-general in Mbeki's office.

Tutu was not rushing to Vlok's defence, however. A number of key sources told The Sunday Independent his failed intervention on behalf of apartheid victims was aimed at staving off a lengthy constitutional challenge to the NPA's policy guidelines for prosecuting those who either failed or shunned the TRC's amnesty process.

More:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20070722082807187C956524