SOUTH AFRICA: Former South African president FW de Klerk denies that he had ever condoned apartheid era murders or other gross violations of human rights

Record ID: 454895

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Former South African president FW de Klerk denies that he had ever condoned apartheid era murders or other gross violations of human rights
  • Date: 27th July 2007
  • Summary: (BN14)CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 26, 2007) (REUTERS) PHOTOGRAPHERS WATCHING FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT F.W. DE KLERK AT PODIUM DE KLERK AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT F.W. DE KLERK SAYING: "The stories have done my reputation immense harm. They tried to make it difficult for me to continue to play a constructive role nationally and internationally, and they have the very real potential of seriously and negatively affecting my material interests". CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT F.W. DE KLERK SAYING: "I have not only a clear conscience. I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever." JOURNALIST LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT F.W. DE KLERK SAYING: "I'm standing here to state my case. Not in a defensive spirit but in a spirit that I am owed a fair deal in my own country and I am proud not of what I have done. I am proud of what all those who stood around me have done in bringing about a fair and new South Africa." DE KLERK TALKNG TO A JOURNALIST
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADK1Z8882PZ5C60MJIOMEWPJ7D
  • Story Text: Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, speaking as an apartheid-era police minister preparing to stand trial for trying to poison a black church leader, insists he never condoned atrocities committed under white rule.
    Former president FW de Klerk on Thursday (July 26) denied that he had ever condoned apartheid era murders or other gross violations of human rights.
    "I have not only a clear conscience, I am not guilty of any crime whatsoever," he said at a media briefing in Cape Town.
    He was responding to newspaper reports that former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, who faces prosecution over an apartheid era poisoning, intended to spill the beans on him.
    De Klerk said the reports, based on unnamed sources, did not contain a grain of truth.
    "The stories have done my reputation immense harm. They tried to make it difficult for me to continue to play a constructive role nationally and internationally, and they have the very real potential of seriously and negatively affecting my material interests", he said.
    Adriaan Vlok, former Minister of Law and Order, and ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe, were charged last week with the attempted murder of cleric Frank Chikane using poisoned underpants. Chikane is now an adviser to President Thabo Mbeki.
    The Sunday Times newspaper said Vlok and van der Merwe were angry that they were the only ones being held accountable for atrocities committed under white minority rule and had implicated De Klerk and his former Cabinet officials in submissions to prosecutors.
    De Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for securing the country's smooth transition from apartheid to the first all-race poll in 1994.
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