THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
been operating under Presidents Botha and de Klerk. Most of these state-
ments highlighted the callous brutality of the police and military forces,
including murders and exceptionally cruel methods of torture. 3 7
The amnesty committee managed to break through the denial of re-
sponsibility by the National party politicians and their senior police and
military officers. This began when Colonel Eugene de Kock, who had
been found guilty of six murders and given two life sentences, applied to
the amnesty committee for mitigation of sentence. He admitted many
crimes, including helping to blow up the headquarters of the South
African Council of Churches in johannesburg, but he insisted that his or-
ders had come from police generals who in turn had received their in-
structions from cabinet ministers. That was followed by a flood of confes-
sions by other agents of the National party regime, and in virtually every
case they fingered the top police and the cabinet, including former Presi-
dents Botha and de Klerk. When ex-ministers Pik Botha and Adriaan Vlok
applied for amnesty, they, too, said that Botha and de Klerk had given or-
ders to kill.38
The TRC subpoenaed Botha and de Klerk. Botha refused to comply;