TRC Final Report

Volume 5

Chapter 7

Subsection 22

■ PREVENTION OF ATROCITIES

147 If the above descriptions of motives and explanations have merit, then steps towards prevention of future atrocities are quite clear. If political circumstances – literally power arrangements in a social order – constitute the primary explanation, such circumstances must be changed. In South Africa this has already been effected. The dramatic changes which have ushered in the new principles of democracy, non-racialism, non-sexism, and equal opportunity citizenship in a unified state are major steps in the right direction. However, until real economic inequalities are eliminated, until equal opportunities become feasible realities, such noble ideas and principles remain under partial threat.

148 As an important first step towards the prevention of future possibilities of crimes of obedience, the South African Constitution states in Chapter 11, section 199, that:

The security services must act, and must teach and require their members to act, in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

No member of any security service may obey a manifestly illegal order.

149 If secrecy and silence and clandestine organisations provide fertile ground for evil deeds, then solutions lie in open, transparent and accountable social institutions. Since security forces, private armies and vigilante groups constitute particular sites of recruitment, training, propaganda and promotion of violence, these sites demand special scrutiny. Open scrutiny by the public seems the most powerful rehabilitation device. Freedom of the mass media, academic freedom, and the role of civil society as watchdogs are all vital.

150 Since ideologies, discourses and language codes are the constituent grounds for social identities of difference, disparagement and disgust and for inter-group cleavages based on hostility, resentment, suspicion and revenge, these factors demand sharp vigilance and radical change. The various Commissions recently established provide a good start. The vigorous promotion of a culture of human rights, of equality and mutual respect in every sector, is of paramount importance. Particular attention needs to be given to language codes that promote, quite subtly, images of hatred, distance and disparagement between groups.

151 Obedience to authorities, compliance with group norms and the power of the immediate situation were all identified as dangers. Encouragement of dissent, the power of minor influence and the promotion of dialogue, negotiation and multi-vocality all constitute steps toward prevention.

152 If crowds are a potential seedbed for violence, they require adequate channels for expressing voice and opening dialogue. The new Regulation of Gatherings Act is a vast improvement. This Act will require further education and promotion to establish freedom of association, the right of protest and effective channels for dialogue as part of the daily bread of the fledgling democratic order.

153 These few ideas, neither too lengthy nor too cumbersome, would seem to be but a limited burden to effect the future prevention of atrocities.