Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
15 July 1998
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is publishing advertisements in Johannesburg newspapers tomorrow (Thursday) notifying any untraced victims of bombings planned by the former South African Police force of their right to participate in amnesty hearings next week.
The advertisement asks anyone who may regard him or herself as a victim of the Khotso House or Cosatu House explosions in 1988 urgently to contact the Committee's Executive Secretary in Cape Town, on 021- 24-5161.
A number of people were reported in police dockets and newspaper reports to have been injured in the blasts. Those names available from dockets or newspapers reports appear in the advertisement.
While the Committee has contacted a Khotso House security guard who was at the site of the blast, it has been unable to find the current addresses of most of those reported injured. In the case of Khotso House, those injured came from blocks of flats from which residents have since moved.
Victims have the right, under the law governing the TRC's operations, to attend an amnesty hearing, to be legally represented and to testify, to adduce evidence and submit documents or articles to be taken into consideration.
The TRC's Amnesty Committee sits in Pretoria next week to hear amnesty applications from the former Law and Order Minister, Adriaan Vlok and more than 30 police officers, including Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and former Police Commissioner Johan van der Merwe, over their role in the bombings.
Inquiries: John Allen, 082- 452-7859