THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission yesterday granted amnesty to four Afrikaner bombers who attempted to thwart the advance of South Africa's non racial democracy, three of whom were members of the neo fascist Afrikaner Resistance Movement.
The decision came in the wake of an earlier announcement that amnesty had been granted to a former police officer, Brian Mitchell, for his leading role in the massacre of 11 black people in the Trust Feed settlement in KwaZulu Natal.
The two decisions have raised hopes in right wing circles that an application for amnesty by the assassins of the African National Congress leader, Mr Chris Hani, would be similarly successful.
Lawyers for Mr Hani's killers, Clive Derby Lewis and Janus Walus, are confident the two men will be freed. Like Derby Lewis, one of the bombers who was freed yesterday, Koos Botha, was a public representative of the Conservative Party at the time of his clandestine bombing of schools in protest against the desegregation of state controlled education.
The deputy chairman of the Truth Commission, Dr Alex Boraine, yesterday cited the release of the four Afrikaner saboteurs to repudiate a declaration by the Conservative Party leader, Mr Ferdi Hartzenberg, that the commission's sole intention is the destruction of the Afrikaner.
Three black members of the ANC were freed with the Afrikaner bombers; the three were serving long prison sentences for the murder of members of a vigilante gang known as the "Three Million" and suspected of having links with the police.
The commission is empowered by its enabling law to grant amnesty to applicants, provided that their actions were prompted by political motives and provided that they make a full disclosure of the events surrounding and leading to their crimes.
Dr Boraine's summary of the commission's latest findings included applicants who were not successful.
Three Afrikaner brothers who murdered two black security guards failed to convince the commission that their homicidal behaviour, which included convictions of racial superiority, was politically motivated.
Two Afrikaners who described themselves as National Socialist Partisans and who were jailed for a spate of murders and robberies were unable to persuade the commission that they qualified for amnesty. Tomorrow is the deadline for applications, unless President Mandela agrees to a request by the commission chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to extend it.
More than 3,500 applications have been received. The bulk of applicants are prisoners but they include Mr Mandela's Minister of Defence, Mr Joe Modise, and the former Minister of Law and Order, Mr Adriaan Vlok.